Managing your social media presence

Recent research has found that 90% of recruiters and hiring managers have looked at a candidate’s social media profile, and almost half have done it after receiving the application, but before initiating a screening conversation. The research also showed that 69% of recruiters have rejected someone based on their social networking profile. The main reasons were because the candidate had lied about their qualifications, posted inappropriate photos or comments, or had negative comment about a previous employer. 68%, however, were reported to have hired someone because of what they’d seen on their profile. This was often due to the candidate’s profile providing a positive impression of personality and organisational fit, it showed the person was creative or it supported qualifications and had good references.

To help avoid being rejected due to your social media presence, we’ve put together some tips…

• Make sure your privacy settings are set to private unless you want everyone and anyone knowing your business – this includes the potential employers!

• When updating your social media platform, think about what you’re posting and how it may be perceived.

• Bear in mind that even if your profile is private, recruiters will still be able to see your profile picture. Offensive photos are often found to be the main reason for a recruiter rejecting a candidate.

• http://www.reppler.com is a free social media monitoring service which helps users manage their online image. In a nutshell, it checks all your social networks and highlights anything that could be considered a potential issue or risk.

How to get a job through social media...

Nowadays, people use social media for lots of different aspects of their lives – socialising, shopping, for educational purposes and informational purposes, so it’s not surprising that companies have started using social media to recruit as well. We’ve put together some tips to help you source your next role through social media.

·        Don’t just search for jobs – search for people. Websites such as LinkedIn allow us to search for companies and it's employees. It provides you with direct access to the HR manager. You can also use it for research purposes when you do bag an interview.

·        When someone thinks of twitter, they probably won’t think of it as a place to find your next job. However, several companies have twitter accounts dedicated entirely to their recruitment team – plus recruitment companies are always tweeting their positions. Search specific hash tags to find live vacancies. Some examples are, #jobsearch, #jobseeker, #vacancies. Or try industry specific hash tags such as #housingjobs or #publicsectorjobs

·        Several companies have Facebook fan pages with a dedicated job search tab. The HousingJob Facebook page has a job search application whereby you can search through live vacancies without leaving the website.

·        Subscribe to blogs – a lot of people don’t realise that blogs are the number 1 social media tool. A quick google search will provide you with a vast range of blogs on every topic you could imagine. Look for industry specific blogs, as well as ones based on job seeking and HR matters.

Be careful not to focus all your efforts solely on social media though – you should do the above in conjunction with more traditional methods to make sure you’ve got all bases covered.