Leverage Social Media to Find Career Opportunities with These 6 Tips
Social media isn’t just for doom scrolling or finding the next meme or reel to send to your friends. It’s also a powerful, not to mention free (as long as you pay for your Wi-Fi) tool for progressing your career. Whether you’re job hunting, hitting a career plateau, networking or flexing your portfolio, the way you manage your digital and online presence can open doors you thought were bolted with locks. Level up your career using social media! Here’s how.
Professionalize Your Social Media Accounts (Not Just LinkedIn!)
Before you even start applying for jobs, it’s important to have a professional online presence. After making sure your email address is appropriate, the next thing you should professionalize is your social media profiles. Yes, you need to update your Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter bio, not just LinkedIn, since employers and hiring managers check job applicants and even current employees’ social media profiles as detailed in this post from Business News Daily.
LinkedIn: Update your LinkedIn profile with your current position, relevant skills, and (we can’t emphasize this enough) a professional headshot. Don’t upload a selfie wearing shades doing the peace sign.
Use a catchy headline that showcases and summarizes your good points. A potential employer or hiring manager will not read your profile if it looks like a novel.
Other social media platforms: Even if you’re not using these platforms for professional purposes, there’s still a possibility that employers might check them out. Do you know how celebrities lose projects and endorsements because of an unearthed, inappropriate or controversial tweets that they posted before becoming famous? The same thing can happen to you if you portray your online self in a way that will deter future companies from hiring you.
Remember, even a Facebook profile with vacation pics should be cleaned up if you need to maintain a professional image. It sucks not to have the freedom to post whatever you want to post, but you never know who might be lurking!
Share Valuable Content
Your selfies are not valuable content, let’s be clear about that. If you’re really serious about using social media to your advantage, learn to share valuable career-related content. This positions you as an expert or someone engaged in your industry. Share articles, insights or even projects that highlight your expertise.
LinkedIn: Consider writing your articles on LinkedIn or sharing URLs to posts about topics that interest you or are related to your field. This is an effective way to establish yourself as a thought leader.
Other social media platforms: If you’re in the design and visual fields like graphic design, architecture, or event planning, showcase your work on Instagram or Facebook. Share a behind-the-scenes look at your projects or short tutorials. By doing so, you’re establishing yourself as an expert.
Follow Companies and Industry Leaders
If you follow the social media accounts of industry leaders and companies they belong to, you’ll be the first to know of any significant updates about them including job openings and possible collaborations. Engaging with their content will not only keep you updated on industry trends but also give you a chance to be noticed by hiring managers.
Engage Don’t Just Lurk
Aside from being noticed by recruiters, social media can increase your visibility and create connections to the right people. It’s easy to mindlessly scroll through social media, but if you use it aside from entertainment, you’ll see articles, posts, and comments as a way to connect.
Join conversations: Participate in trending topics in your industry and post insightful comments. We’ll stress the “insightful” part here. Don’t just comment to comment; you want to make sure you have something relevant to say, and say it clearly and (importantly) concisely.
Create discussions: Don’t be afraid to ask questions or ask others about their opinions on a topic related to your industry. This is an effective way to increase engagement and establish a professional online presence.
Wisely Take Advantage of Hashtags
Hashtags are not just for fun. They’re also useful to get your content seen by a wider audience. When posting about career-related topics or a project you’ve recently finished, use industry-related hashtags for professionals and recruiters so that other people in your field will be able to see them in their feeds.
For example: Use #DigitalMarketingTips #TechTrends or #FreelancerLife to help your posts target niche communities within the industry. Keep it short, and professional and don’t use all the hashtags in one post.
Use LinkedIn for Job Hunting
LinkedIn is one of your best friends if you’re looking for new job opportunities. According to this post from Anderson College, “Recruiters, employers and school admissions officers search through LinkedIn and other career sites using keywords to target potential hires or students.” So, use this platform to your advantage! Make sure your profile is working for you even if you’re sleeping and not actively (and aggressively) applying to jobs for which you meet the requirements. You’ll know your profile is effective if you wake up to emails and messages from companies inviting you for an interview, even if you did not apply to any of their openings.
Conclusion
Social media is more than just a platform to post a hundred pictures of your cat or to rant about the food delivery driver who came five minutes late; it can be a goldmine for career opportunities if you know how to use it to your advantage properly. Take control of your online presence now, highlight your marketable and transferable skills, and engage with the right people. Your next big career opportunity might be one like, comment, or post away!
