Social Media Tips from a Hiring Manager

Posted by George San Jose in Digital Consumer Lifestyle | 1 comment

We’ve already discussed that when it comes to job searching, there is a growing trend in using social media, so candidates should use every method available to increase their visibility.

As a hiring manager, I find LinkedIn to be the most useful social media site. In fact, several polls have shown that 75% of hiring managers use LinkedIn to source for potential candidates.

What does this mean for you as a job seeker? Update your profile!

A social media profile should be an extension of your resume.  It should be professional, updated, clear, concise, readable, and complete. The best thing about a social media profile is that it has unlimited space, whereas resumes are usually limited to 1 – 2 pages. Knowing this, make sure you include information which you didn’t include on your resume, allowing the hiring manager to form a complete picture around your accomplishments.

So, your profile is complete, but still not landing anything?

With over 40 million users on LinkedIn, your profile is bound to get lost. Don’t take it personal – it’s simply the big black hole of the World Wide Web. The best thing to do is to be the squeaky wheel on the bus so that your profile remains visible and top of mind for hiring managers.

This doesn’t mean spamming everyone out there and saying, “hire me!” It means be PROFESSIONAL. Network. Communicate your intentions and your qualifications – not by blurting statements about how good you are/were in your last job, but by sharing your knowledge with the network. LinkedIn has an awesome community including groups as well as Q&A sections. Dig around in there: answer questions, show that you know what you’re talking about and you will get noticed.