Turn your Online Profile into Job Offers and Opportunities!

There’s a flood of advice out there telling us that we’re behind the times if we aren’t using social media to job hunt. But what I see less of are the practical ‘how-to’ steps telling social media ‘infants’ like me how to go about it.

That is until now.

Our guest blogger Ashley Lauren Perez has returned to InterviewIQ with exactly that advice!

Ashley’s blog is packed with useful tips on exactly what she did to turn her online profile into job offers and business opportunities.

Over to you Ashley.

If you asked me the best way to job hunt a few years ago, with no hesitation I would have said that the job boards were the greatest way to go.

If anyone had ever suggested that social media and creating an online presence was going to be the most effective way to capture employers’ attention, I would have thought they were out of their mind.

It’s only in the last few months that I learnt what a huge impact social media and online branding made in not only my job search, but also my education and networking.

If you use social media and online branding tools effectively, they can help you in ways job boards never could!

When I was an early careerist, I was always told that job seekers should keep their social media profiles private to ensure that no information or pictures can be used against them when trying to land a job.

Although this is great advice, job seekers don’t have to take it to an extreme. Yes, I kept my personal social media pages private but I ended up creating social media pages strictly for professional use.

The results were extraordinary!

So what are the Social Media steps to take to get Interviews, Job Offers & Much More?

Create a LinkedIn Profile: LinkedIn is a great resource for networking with potential employers. In order to maximize your profile, be sure to update your headline, work experience, education, and skills. Keep your work experience details clean, readable, and keyword friendly. This can help recruiters easily find you and scan your profile without being bombarded with unnecessary details.

Target “E-mail friendly” recruiters: when you apply for jobs, sometimes your resume can feel like it got lost in a black hole. LinkedIn helps you easily search for recruiters for the company and job function you’ve applied to. Be sure to connect with them, tell them what job you applied for and explain why you would be good for it. This can help them locate your resume out of the stack of hundreds they regularly receive.

Join in the discussion: LinkedIn and Twitter discussion groups can really help you promote your knowledge; network with people that can assist you; and help you gain up-to-date information.

Here are some great Twitter chat groups for job seekers:

o #JobHuntChat , Mondays @ 10PM Eastern Seaboard Time (USA)*
o #TalentNet,  Tuesdays @ 7PM Eastern Seaboard Time (USA)*
o #TChat,  Wednesday @ 7PM Eastern Seaboard Time (USA)*
o #GenYChat- Wednesday @ 9PM Eastern Seaboard Time (USA)*
o #HFChat, Friday @ 12PM Eastern Seaboard Time (USA)*

How exactly can you make LinkedIn & Twitter Chat Rooms Work as Job Search tools?

Throughout my time posting on discussion forums, Twitter and blog posts, I ensured that people could easily contact me. I made my business social media profile very public and added my e-mail address to my biography and the “About Me” page on my blog.

As I started to get more exposure, people would make simple comments or ask me to connect with them on the sites. I always made a conscious effort to respond and accept them ASAP.

Simply thanking them for their comment or writing a response to something they said made a huge impact when it came to building relationships.

People appreciated the fact that I took the time out to acknowledge them. Before I knew it, they would respond back with something along the lines of, “How can I help you?”

Whether it was passing my blog postings around, giving me opportunities to write, forwarding my resume or connecting me with people that could offer me a job; they were there and they supported me.

All it really required was me taking that step of responding to them in a timely manner and creating an opportunity to communicate further.

What else really makes a difference and helps you to stand out from the crowd?

Put simply, go above and beyond.

Resumes are great to show what you’ve done in the past, but how are you currently keeping up with industry trends?

Be sure to research relevant information, share it with your network and comment on your connections’ posted articles.

In my case, I even went a bit further and created a blog related to the industry I was targeting and promoted it on my social media sites.

After spending many months applying to jobs the traditional way, I decided to start focusing more on creating my personal brand via LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and WordPress.

Within a few short weeks, I started receiving requests to write guest blogs.

This gave me some great exposure to companies relevant to my job search. From there I started to participate more in discussion posts on LinkedIn and chats on Twitter. This helped me gain more connections that were interested in building business relationships.

I soon learned that strangers on social media were not only supportive and encouraging, but they were also willing to help me get connected with people who could offer me a job. Before I knew it, my resume was being passed around.

Within a month of utilising social media regularly for business purposes, I had received job offers, an internship offer and more opportunities to write for new companies.

I was kicking myself for not trying this option sooner and now I urge all job seekers to try it.

Having an online presence can really help you. The important thing is to be strategic in your approach.

Keep it professional but also keep it about YOU.

Your online presence can help hiring managers, recruiters, and companies really get an idea of who you are and what you could potentially do for them.

I was happy to see that the time I invested really did pay off. I felt that I made more progress doing it this way than the months I spent solely dedicated to time on job boards and submitting online applications.

Give it a go!  it could make a huge difference!

*North American centred Twitter chat groups, Please send us a comment if you know of any Australian based groups.

Ashley Lauren Perez is a talent acquisition specialist. Additionally, she is using her human resources and creative writing background to write a blog for managers, leaders, employees, and job seekers. The blog’s mission is to make a positive difference by being informative as well as inspiring.

When Ashley isn’t writing, you can find her: reading; partaking in outdoor activities; and embarking on adventures and travel. Feel free to read more blogs written by Ashley @ ashleylaurenperez.com or follow her on Twitter @AshLaurenPerez

 

Tagged as: career change, Hidden job market, LinkedIn Tactics, manage your online profile, Networking, online personal branding, social media mastery