Getting Employed Through Social Media-Nazar Kamangar/bridge consulting blogs

We’ve talked in the past about using social media to make your small business better. But what if you don’t have a small business? More specifically, what if you don’t have a job? You can still utilize social media for marketing purposes. Only in this case, the commodity you’re marketing is yourself.

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According to a recent article on forbes.com, over one third of employers use social media to locate and research potential employees. Of this pool, 65% of prospective employers use Facebook for research, and 63% use LinkedIn. Typically, employers are using sites to achieve very different goals. When they visit LinkedIn, they are looking for resumes that encompass the skill sets they are looking for in an employee. Once they have narrowed the field of viable potential candidates, they will look through Facebook to see if your personality will fit the culture of the company.

There are certain things that are immediate red flags for employers on your Facebook profile. Provocative or otherwise inappropriate photos and evidence of excessive public drinking and drug use will eliminate nearly half of the potential employers who were once interested in you. Other serious transgressions include badmouthing prior employers, or making racist, sexist, or other derogatory comments or slurs.

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However, companies don’t just use your Facebook profile to dig up dirt. Twenty-nine percent of surveyed employers stated that people with great resumes clinched jobs because of their great Facebook profiles. These were people that presented themselves professionally, seemed to have a great personality, and received glowing comments from family and friends that served as diverse character references.

You can use all this information to your advantage. It’s generally a good idea to keep your Facebook profile private so that only friends can see information. However, you can choose to make some posts public that will reflect well on your professionalism and character. Alternatively, you can set up two Facebook accounts; one, under your professional name, will be anything you’d be fine with a prospective employer seeing. Another, for friends only, can be under a nickname. Whatever you show publicly, make sure that you use good grammar and check for typos.

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Finally, don’t be afraid to think outside the box in getting yourself in the spotlight. Create a professional Twitter account that ties back to your professional Facebook profile. Follow people in your chosen field, and be sure to engage with them by sharing articles and otherwise engaging them. In this brave new world, you can network with people all over the world without ever leaving your house.