Online Social Networkingin the Job Search

Understanding, Building, and Using Online Profiles

What is an Online Profile?

• Online snapshots of the user’s life

• Professional or personal

• Facebook, LinkedIn, Visual CV, Emurse, are all online profiles

• Multimedia: Words, Photos, Audio, and Video

Using Social Media in Job Searches

• Connect directly to hiring managers and recruiters (overstated)

• Find companies that are hiring

• Create a positive result for Google searches

Using Social Media in Job Searches

• Find people you know who work for companies that may need you

• Find people you don’t know who work for copmanies that need you

• Communicate with multiple people at once about your search

Is Social Networking Effective?

Who Uses Social Media?

• About 10% of employers actively search for candidates on social media

• Recruiters use LinkedIn and Twitter extensively

• LOTS of people are on Facebook– In July 2008 19.55% of USA used Facebook– In July 2009 22.52% of USA used Facebook

• 1 in 4 people use Facebook in the United States

– Facebook accounts for 44% of all social media

Is Social Networking Effective?

• In short:

– Getting a job directly is possible, but not likely– Connecting to others, and moving that

networking into the real world is VERY likely– Google searches are common– Online profiles can be regarded as de facto

proof of tech savvy

Netiquette

• Technology changes changing rules

– Spelling, abbreviations, acronyms, phrases• NOT acceptable for professional communications• NEVER TYPE IN ALL CAPS – THIS IS READ AS

SHOUTING!• Emoticons have a negative impact as well

DO

– Make sure your profile is full of info– Let people see your profile– Consider everything you type on the internet

to be “public domain”– Work to build your network– Regularly update your profile and/or status

DON’T

– Post inappropriate content– Let your profile sit untouched for long periods– List highly controversial info about yourself

Facebook

• Most users – 1 in 2 working adults

• Status updates go to all your “friends”

• “Info” tab lets you talk about– Work History– Additional Websites– Professional and Personal interests

• Ads are a unique way to promote yourself

LinkedIn

• Highly Professional – more space for work history

• Normal to request recommendations

• Great tool for researching companies

• May require third party tools to obtain contact info

• Far fewer users than Facebook

• Have to $ to send “InMail”

Emurse.com

• Non-networking site

• Hosts resumes on a website

• Benefits:– Multiple formats for employer to download– Tracking for the past week– Choose your own address / fits on a business

card– Can be password-protected

VisualCV.com

• Non-networking, multimedia online resume

• Unique format commands more attention

• Shows up in Google searches

• Requires significant tech-savvy and initial time commitment

• Allows more in-depth view of your work

Twitter

• Searchable micro-blogging site – 140 characters or less. VERY basic bio.

• #Hashtags create searchable conversations

• Follow and be followed

• Third party apps like tweetmyjobs.com can help

Jigsaw

• Non-networking people finder. Significant, and growing

• Credits can be earned with referrals, or $

• Sometimes finds contact info where LinkedIn or Google fail

For a copy of this Presentation

Go to

www.MarkRGerlach.com/SocialNetworks