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Using Social Media To Find A Job

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The use of social media to promote your CV writing is vital in helping you to secure job success. Currently, over 750 million people use Facebook and 140 million use Twitter, so ignoring these communication streams could be detrimental to your job search.

Although every social site is unique, by following a few basic rules you should be able to increase your reach and build a professional online network.

CV writing online is just as important as it is offline. To maximise the visibility of your CV on the internet try summarising your work experience in the biography section of a social site or include a link to an online CV template. Either way you need to make it as easy as possible for an employer or recruiter to land on your page and see your career history and skills. Uploading your CV and career portfolio online is a great way of attracting attention but setting up a blog or website can be even more effective. You can include pictures, work extracts, a biography and contact details and keep it regularly updated.

You can also use social sites to tell people you are looking for a job. Including this in your biography or even updating your Facebook status to let your friends know you are looking for work can be effective. Networking with contacts will ensure they are looking out for relevant opportunities for you.

LinkedIn is used by professionals all over the world. Last year over four billion professional searches were made on Linked In – suggesting millions of job seekers and recruiters regularly use the site. Candidates can really maximise CV writing opportunities on Linked In as it allows users to build their own online CV and portfolio. Much like other social sites, users can post a profile photo and post status updates. But the main user page allows you to pick out highlights of your career history and list companies you have worked for. You can also use the summary section to write a personal statement that recruiters can easily navigate to. Linked In has quite a different culture to other social sites – it’s mainly used for networking opportunities and meeting professionals. If you update your career history correctly, connect with relevant industry contacts and join discussion groups you can find out about new career opportunities.

The crucial part of using social media sites, for businesses and consumers, is interaction. Employers don’t appreciate their news feeds being littered with job enquiries – instead try interacting and engaging. Follow companies you are interested in and keep up with their news. Ask questions; get involved in debate and comment. This way you are more likely to be recognised as a potential employee.

As well as networking, you can use social media sites to improve your CV writing. Follow relevant companies and click through to their websites. See what they are writing about, what skills they are looking for and incorporate this in your CV writing. Similarly, following individuals in your chosen industry is a great way of improving your CV.

Although interacting is vital on social sites, it can be damaging if you are interacting with the wrong people on the wrong network. If you use Facebook to post photos of partying and socialising, do you really want a prospective employer to see it? Twitter receives 175 million tweets a day and if yours is one of these, don’t you want it to give off the right impression? All previous updates on social sites can be seen at the click of a button so limiting access to your profile is advisable, depending on the content. Try and keep your updates specific to the social network you are using and think of your online profile like you do your CV. You should constantly adapt your online profile to suit your current work status. You should also try to update your social profiles at least once a day. If a company lands on your page and notices it has been inactive, they are likely to leave it and not return.

Hayley Stovold is a writer for CV-Surgeon.co.uk, an online resource offering career advice, a professional CV creation tool and CV templates to jobseekers.

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