Social Media in Job Search

The role of social media in job search is increas­ingly impor­tant. Did you know that there are a lot of jobs avail­able on social media? But where could you find them and how? Social media uses various job-related #hash­tags, which can be used to gather together links, texts or, for example, job adver­tise­ments on similar topics.

It is not neces­sary to use all social media chan­nels, but you can choose one or two of the chan­nels that suit you the best and create your­self compre­hen­sive and up-to-date profiles there.

It is more and more common today that job adver­tise­ments are published on social media because poten­tial employ­ees can be reached quickly and easily through social media chan­nels. It is also possi­ble to find those people through social media chan­nels who are not actively looking for a job.

Employ­ers value social media skills. By using social media chan­nels, you can show poten­tial employ­ers that you manage the use of social media, and by taking new social media chan­nels into use, you can also show employ­ers that you are open for new ideas. Thus, you may want to attach a link to your Insta­gram account, for example, in your job appli­ca­tion and thereby gain some extra points during job search.

In prac­tice, social media services in job search are market­ing chan­nels that publish infor­ma­tion on vacan­cies and where employ­ees can announce their job search and show their skills. It is a network that is utilised in job search and a channel for commu­ni­cat­ing about vacan­cies. Of course, not all chan­nels or services need to be used, but you can choose the ones that are most suit­able for your­self as well as the ones that best meet your job search goals. You should, however, try out differ­ent chan­nels or services to see what works best for you.

The most popular social media services used for employ­ment purposes are LinkedIn, Face­book, Twitter, and Insta­gram. Other chan­nels used are e.g. Periscope, Google+, What­sApp and Snapchat.

Face­book

On Face­book, your own activ­ity affects the amount of bene­fits you can gain. Your own network of friends, acquain­tances, rela­tives and other Face­book friends can help you with your job search. You must just put a word around that you are looking for a job and request your friends to share this infor­ma­tion, and this way the infor­ma­tion spreads to their networks.

You can also search for vacan­cies with hash­tags such as #recruit­ment #recruit #vacan­cies #summer jobs etc. You should follow adver­tise­ments and announce­ments by compa­nies and other job providers (TE services, i.e. Public Employ­ment and Busi­ness Services, and various private employ­ment agen­cies), and also join job search/recruitment groups on social media where the whole commu­nity supports the members’ job search. In addi­tion to provid­ing useful tips for job search, these groups may provide tips for writing job appli­ca­tions and CVs, instruc­tions for job inter­view situ­a­tions, and other tips for the differ­ent stages of a job search process.

Jobs on Facebook

Face­book has its own section for job adver­tise­ments. A link to this section can be found in the menu on the left-hand side of the front page, under the “Näytä enemmän/Show more” link. You can search for jobs adver­tise­ments posted on Face­book based on loca­tion, field of indus­try, and type of duty. Jobs on Face­book: https://www.facebook.com/jobs/

When you wish to apply for a job, click on the “Apply now” button below the adver­tise­ment. Face­book opens an appli­ca­tion and the profes­sional infor­ma­tion you have added to your Face­book profile will be auto­mat­i­cally trans­ferred into the appli­ca­tion. This appli­ca­tion can be, however, changed before submit­ting it. Once the appli­ca­tion has been submit­ted, a Messen­ger conver­sa­tion will be opened between the appli­cant and the employer’s page, where the employer can confirm to have received the appli­ca­tion. The employer cannot see your full personal profile but only the infor­ma­tion found in the appli­ca­tion as well as the infor­ma­tion you have publicly shared on your profile.

Personal reflec­tion task 1:

• If you are on Face­book, think about the image your current public profile gives about you. Which photos have you published and what kind of publi­ca­tions have you made? How could you contribute to your employ­ment through Facebook?
• If you are not on Face­book, think about the profes­sional bene­fits of joining it. Could you consider joining Face­book for this purpose?

Twitter

Twitter is a great place to network for profes­sional purposes. Here are some tips for using Twitter in job search:

• Add a profile picture and a short descrip­tion of your­self. Briefly describe who you are and what you do. If you wish, you can add infor­ma­tion about your job search or a link to your LinkedIn profile, for example.
• Follow people and compa­nies in your own field or in the field you are inter­ested in. Partic­i­pate in discus­sions. Twitter will soon suggest you to follow people with the same type of inter­ests. You may also want to follow recruit­ment and employ­ment agen­cies that share job adver­tise­ments on Twitter.
• Create and share content that tells you about you, your inter­ests and your thoughts. High­light your skills and tell you about the things that you find most impor­tant. Keep, however, in mind that anyone can see your tweets, so you should consider care­fully what to share and what not to share.
• You can search for tweets on differ­ent topics on Twitter. You can search for vacan­cies on Twitter by using hash­tags such as #työpaikat, #rekry, #duunit, #työn­haku, #työ, #somerekry, #ura, #avoimet­työ­paikat or #rekry­tointi (in Finnish) or #jobs, #recruit­ment, #job search, #job, #career, #vacan­cies etc. (in English).

Personal reflec­tion task 2:

Are there well-known people in your field? Can you find their Twitter accounts?

Pinter­est and Instagram

Pinter­est and Insta­gram are visual social media services where images have a bigger role that texts. A Pinter­est or an Insta­gram profile is one type of visual job appli­ca­tion that allows you to show what you can do, and what kind of jobs or things you are inter­ested in and moti­vated by. They are good chan­nels for showing your own person­al­ity and samples of your work. For example, pictures of hair­styles made by a hair­dresser or an upholsterer’s pictures of their work process tell a lot about their skills and styles. 

Tips for using Pintrest and Insta­gram in job search

• Most of the content on Pinter­est consists of so-called repins, i.e. the users have collected the content from some­where else. If you want to stand out, create your own content in your profile.
• Find and follow experts and opinion leaders in your field. You can find them by using the search func­tion, by brows­ing through popular cate­gories, and by follow­ing people you know.
• Follow, like and repin compa­nies you would like to work for.
• Make your own port­fo­lio of pictures or videos that tell about you, your hobbies and inter­ests, your work, and your back­ground. You can also add a link to your LinkedIn profile, for example, or publish the contents of your blog.

Video services such as Youtube and Vimeo

Video services can be used in job search in many ways.

1. You can search for vacan­cies that compa­nies publish in form of videos.
2. You can watch presen­ta­tion videos of inter­est­ing jobs.
3. You can search for example videos and instruc­tional videos for writing a CV, for job inter­views, and for job search in general, for example.
4. You can make your own video CV or a video job appli­ca­tion and share it through the service.
5. You can present your compe­tence in form of videos and share these videos through the service.
6. You can also use these video services in video inter­views.

Video contents uploaded in YouTube or Vimeo can also be linked to other social media chan­nels, such as Twitter and LinkedIn. This will make the video easier to be found.

For more infor­ma­tion on making a video CV, see the section Job Search Skills.

LinkedIn

Task 1. Watch the webinar The Linkedin profile – step by step. You need to regis­ter with your email address to be able to join the webinar (Momen­tum project 2021)

In this webinar, Linkedin profile ABC, the best and most prac­ti­cal tips for build­ing a Linkedin pres­ence to attract employ­ers and finding the rele­vant job oppor­tu­ni­ties from Linkedin’s various types of job postings.

Task 2. Create a LinkedIn profile for your­self using the instruc­tions provided in the webinar.

More about Linkedin

LinkedIn is a social media channel suit­able for profes­sional use. It is a versa­tile channel for job search and network­ing, since LinkedIn is meant for both employ­ees and employ­ers. Employ­ers, i.e. compa­nies, have company profiles in the service, and jobseek­ers create their personal profiles in the service.

You should be active on LinkedIn, because the more you use LinkedIn, the wider network you create. In addi­tion, the more you update your profile, the easier it is for poten­tial employ­ers to find you. 

How do I use LinkedIn?

• In your personal profile, you can tell e.g. about your job search status, contact infor­ma­tion, educa­tional back­ground, your compe­tence, and your work history.
• The profile infor­ma­tion should be filled in care­fully. You should also add a decent, profes­sional profile picture of your­self to your personal profile as well as a cover photo.
• Summary is one of the most impor­tant elements in your profile. It is shown in the profile imme­di­ately after your basic infor­ma­tion. The summary should convince the reader and the poten­tial new employer. It is a short adver­tise­ment where you should write 3-4 of your key compe­tences or the most impor­tant achieve­ments in your previ­ous jobs. You can also tell about the types of jobs or posi­tions you are currently apply­ing for.
• Use keywords or hash­tags that describe your inter­ests and compe­tence. Recruiters use them when search­ing for suit­able profiles. In addi­tion, the Skills & Endorse­ments section is an impor­tant place for keywords or hash­tags that describe your compe­tence. Your own contacts can also recom­mend you here in this section.
• On LinkedIn, you should create inter­est­ing content related to your own compe­tence, such as status updates, arti­cles, group discus­sions, and other comments. This will make you easier to be noticed and increase other people’s aware­ness of you.
• Network­ing is an impor­tant part of the service. The size of your network also affects your search results. You should, there­fore, network and also accept contact requests from other people than just your friends and acquain­tances. You should also send contact requests to other people, e.g. repre­sen­ta­tives of your field and poten­tial employ­ers. In this case, you should include a personal message to the request. Encour­age your network to suggest you suit­able jobs they find and ask them to share your profile.
• Pay atten­tion to the privacy settings on LinkedIn. Check what your public profile looks like, who can see your updates, and what apps appear on your profile.
• Some compa­nies allow you to apply for jobs directly with your LinkedIn profile, so you may not need any sepa­rate appli­ca­tion forms or papers.

Where can I find jobs?

• On LinkedIn, employ­ees are sought with so-called direct searches, i.e. they are contacted directly on the basis of their profiles, without a sepa­rate job advertisement.
• The focus of recruit­ment and job search is on the Jobs section, which is a place where vacan­cies are adver­tised. There you can, for example, search for vacan­cies based on compe­tence or type of company.
• In addi­tion, jobs can be found in groups where compa­nies can add job adver­tise­ments free of charge. You can also get good advice for job search in job search groups and in profes­sional groups.
• Some compa­nies also adver­tise their jobs through targeted market­ing, which are titled “Promoted”.

Source: Käännös. Sujuvat työn­haku­markki­nat –hanke (Flex­i­ble Job Seeking project). Creative Commons Nimeä-EiKau­palli­nen-JaaSamoin 4.0 Kansain­vä­li­nen -lisenssillä.

Blogs and vlogs

Blogs

A blog gives a more diverse picture of a jobseeker than a tradi­tional CV. By reading one’s blog, the employer can get a lot of infor­ma­tion about the jobseeker quickly and easily. The blog tells, for example, about the employee’s skills, thoughts, expe­ri­ence, IT skills, visual eye, and inter­ac­tion skills. Blog­ging is inter­ac­tive, so one purpose of blog posts is to create discus­sion. Sharing knowl­edge and expe­ri­ences with readers can bring new perspec­tives and increase one’s profes­sional compe­tence. In addi­tion, the blog allows you to network and make new contacts.

Students at the start of their careers can start blog­ging with a port­fo­lio blog, for example. A digital or an elec­tronic port­fo­lio differs from so-called tradi­tional port­fo­lios only in terms of imple­men­ta­tion; it is an elec­tronic collec­tion of work samples. The blog can also include school assign­ments or your own thoughts and expe­ri­ences about studies as well as the field you are study­ing. A port­fo­lio blog can contain text, sound, images, video, and animations.

More expe­ri­enced jobseek­ers can have a so-called expert blog for showing their exper­tise through publi­ca­tions. The publi­ca­tions deal with topics or issues related to the field, solve customers’ prob­lems, or provide guid­ance on how to use products.

Blog tools include 

• Word­Press: https://fi.wordpress.org/
• Blogger: https://www.blogger.com
• Instruc­tions for using Blogger: https://support.google.com/blogger.
  Note that if you have a Google account, such as Gmail, the same user name and pass­word can be used in Blogger.

Vlogs

Instead of a tradi­tional blog, you can keep a vlog (video blog/video diary). The idea of vlog­ging is the same as in a blog, but the vlogger publishes videos instead of writ­ings. Videos are usually published on YouTube, where vlog­gers who publish videos are also called YouTubers.

Tips for vlogging:

• Plan your videos in advance
• Keep your videos short
• Learn how to edit your videos, you do not have to shoot every­thing at once
• Follow other YouTubers
• Finnish YouTu­bers: https://vlogit.fi/

Employer and recruit­ment on social media

An employer uses social media to market itself as an employer. On social media, you can get rele­vant infor­ma­tion on current issues in compa­nies and in the field as a whole. Employ­ees are often sought with keywords “a good guy” or “a suit­able person”. By follow­ing compa­nies on social media, you can get an idea of ​​what kind of employ­ees the company is looking for or what kind of company culture or atmos­phere the work­place has. Do the employ­ees partic­i­pate in sports events together? By observ­ing this type of things, you can see whether there are sporty employ­ees working in that company and whether they value people who take good care of them­selves. Do the employ­ees spend time with each other in their free time? If they do, the employ­ees are likely to be social people who get along with each other. You can think about your­self and the qual­i­ties you have; are you suit­able for that partic­u­lar company, would you fit in with others, and would you enjoy their company in shared occasions?

Job adver­tise­ments on social media

Many compa­nies adver­tise their vacan­cies through their social media profiles. Such publi­ca­tions may also provide you with tips on jobs that are not publicly adver­tised or actively marketed. It is, there­fore, advis­able to follow inter­est­ing compa­nies and poten­tial employ­ers on social media, even if job search is not topical for you at the moment.

Compa­nies can also buy ads that appear on e.g. Face­book and Insta­gram as spon­sored job advertisements.

Adver­tise­ments are targeted, which means that they appear to the users of the service accord­ing to certain crite­ria, such as loca­tion or educa­tion. You should, there­fore, check that your personal infor­ma­tion is correct and up-to-date, so that job adver­tise­ments will be visible for you.

Task 3: Search for poten­tial employ­ers in social media chan­nels. In which chan­nels can you find the poten­tial employer you are inter­ested in? You can search for compa­nies’ social media profiles even if you are not a user of that service your­self by just googling e.g. “Company name + Twitter”.

Think about the image you get of the company and its work culture. How do they describe them­selves? Do the publi­ca­tions have infor­ma­tion about the employ­ees and what kind of an image do you get of them? How well would you fit in with them, what do you have in common?

Repu­ta­tion on social media

What kind of an image do the social media services you use give about you?

A decent, up-to-date profile and active partic­i­pa­tion in discus­sions in the field rein­force the image of a good and profes­sional employee. If you keep trolling and complain­ing on the inter­net and try to annoy other people on purpose, it gives a nega­tive image of you that is impos­si­ble to be turned into a posi­tive one anymore.

Check­list for your own social media image

• Check the photos you publish of your­self. What kind of a first impres­sion do they give about you? What does the cover photo tell about your life?
• Post rele­vant comments on public forums.
• Help and guide others – this will bring out your exper­tise in the field and create a posi­tive image of you. Who knows, maybe someone mentions your name to an employer?

Tips for photos used in job search

• You can take the photo with your mobile phone – you can also edit it with the image editing soft­ware on your mobile phone, if needed.
• Crop the image; it should only show your face or your face and upper part of the body – avoid full-body shots.
• Make sure the back­ground is tidy and calm and that your face stands out from the background.
• A good photo is sharp. You can put the camera on the shelf to take a picture of yourself.
• The best light for taking photos is natural light. Bright sunlight does not give the best results and a dark photo gives an unpro­fes­sional impres­sion of you.
• Make sure the photo and its lines are straight.
• Avoid overly artis­tic filters, frames and effects.
• The photo repre­sents you and the repre­sen­ta­tives of the company look at it to decide whether you could repre­sent them and their values​. Thus, does your photo suit well with the image of the company you are apply­ing for?
• Think about the direc­tion the photo is taken from – should it be taken from the bottom, top, side, or front?
• Your person­al­ity and style can and should show in the photo but remem­ber a profes­sional touch.
• Forget “duck­faces” and too reveal­ing photos – they are not part of job search!
• Take a photo that gives the employer a posi­tive image of you.
• Do not give up if the first photos are not success­ful. Take some more or ask someone else to take it for you.
• Ask other people to comment on your photos; what is the best photo in their opinion?
• Keep your profile and basics infor­ma­tion up-to-date
• Make sure that the public infor­ma­tion on your profile is correct and up-to-date and can be browsed by poten­tial employ­ers. Are the photos you have published suit­able for your future employer to see? When your infor­ma­tion on Face­book, for example, is correct (e.g. place of resi­dence, educa­tion), you will receive targeted job ads (spon­sored ads) directly to your news feed.

• Show own person­al­ity and compe­tence on social media
• Publish samples of your work and photos and videos of your hobbies and inter­ests on your profile. Poten­tial employ­ers may come across with your content and become inter­ested in you. You should also attach links to your job search-related social media profiles in your email signa­ture when email­ing about jobs.

• Be active in job search
• Check the social media chan­nels of differ­ent job search services every day.
• Browse through the websites and read publi­ca­tions of inter­est­ing compa­nies regularly.
• Like the social media sites and publi­ca­tions of poten­tial employers.
• Show your activ­ity and compe­tence by getting involved in discussions.
• Use search func­tions and hashtags.
•  
• Use your networks
• Be open about your job search on social media.
• Ask your friends, acquain­tances, and rela­tives for infor­ma­tion about vacan­cies suit­able for you.
• Post an open job appli­ca­tion on your social media profiles indi­cat­ing infor­ma­tion on the type of job you are looking for and ask your network to share it.
• Join job search groups and profes­sional groups.
  
  
  Finally: Be your­self and trust yourself!

Source: Käännös. Sujuvat työn­haku­markki­nat –hanke (Flex­i­ble Job Seeking project). Creative Commons Nimeä-EiKau­palli­nen-JaaSamoin 4.0 Kansain­vä­li­nen -lisenssillä