Traditionally, jobseekers have used job seeking websites to be connected to jobs and employers, but the growth in use of social media sites has led to a new way of connecting to potential employers. Social media offers great opportunities for job seekers – but often there are some pitfalls. Here is Agenda’s overview of the main sites and some general dos and dont's.
With over 150 million members worldwide (and growing), LinkedIn is the UK’s largest professional networking site, offering members the ability to ‘connect’ with their colleagues and contacts – share knowledge and information and connect to job opportunities and potential employers. Users can upload a summary version of their CV, and build a network of contacts. They can also ask their trusted contacts to ‘introduce’ them to contacts they want to connect with.
With over 175 million registered users and 140 million tweets per day, Twitter is a treasure trove of information or information overload depending upon your point of view. With users being able to ‘tweet’ information to their followers (using 140 characters or less), Twitter offers a way of imparting concise information in a direct way. Where jobseekers are concerned, employers use Twitter to notify people of new job vacancies and to engage with their customers and clients in a direct way.
With over 28 million UK users (over a billion users worldwide) – Facebook has been revolutionary in how many people now communicate with their friends and families. Not wanting to be left out – corporations wanted to be involved with Facebook too, which means that many employers (from global multinationals to small private companies) now have a company page set up on Facebook. Communication on Facebook is usually less formal than on LinkedIn so employers use it as a way to engage more actively with its customers, users of its products and potential new recruits. If you are job hunting, it can be a good tool to find out about employers and what message they are trying to put across.