Archive for Social Media
Organizing a Job Hunt with Social Media Tools: Part Three
Posted by: | CommentsThe final installment of my series on organizing a job hunt with social media tools focuses on LinkedIn. Most of you are probably already on this social networking site (if not, you should be!), but here are a few tips to make the most of it.
Organizing a Job Hunt with Social Media Tools: Part Two
Posted by: | CommentsPart two of my series on ButtonedUp.com gives a few tips and tricks for organizing a job hunt using Twitter. The full article is here, I hope you find it helpful!
Organizing a Job Hunt with Social Media Tools: Part One
Posted by: | CommentsWe’ve talked in the past about using social media to help you find a job, but I’d like to share some additional tips for using social media tools to stay organized during a job hunt. I recently had the opportunity to contribute a three-part series on this topic to Buttoned Up, a website dedicated to helping people get organized. Part one focuses on using an aggregation dashboard like Netvibes.com to keep all of your online tools, frequently searched job boards and RSS feeds organized in one place. Feel free to check it out here!
Inside Look: How Recruiters Utilize Social Media
Posted by: | CommentsIn the next few weeks, we’ll be talking some more about ways that you can use social media to find and land a job. But first, I thought it would be helpful to get some insights into how the PR industry is using social media as a recruitment tool. My colleague Lauren Begley wrote a post for the PepperDigital blog with some guidelines for hiring managers to use social media as a recruiting platform. Take a look at what she has to say, and keep these points in mind when engaging in social media communications:
As Twitter has quadrupled in size and Facebook now rivals the population of the world’s third largest country, social media has forever changed our personal and professional communication practices. While it is often thought of as a tool for a PR or communications department within a corporation, there are other uses that divisions like human resources can exercise.
Recruitment, for example, offers a great opportunity for an HR team to delve into the social media space. Just as a job applicant develops a cover letter and resume touting their best qualities, HR managers can build a strong social media platform to showcase the company’s corporate culture in order to attract top talent. At Peppercom, for example, our intern coordinator Alicia Wells manages a blog all about entry level positions in public relations. This platform provides those outside of our company with a look into our corporate culture and professional values, as well as useful information for the job hunting process. If you too are in this position, here are a few best practices to consider.
1) Listen: In today’s current job climate, prospective employees are turning to the Web to identify job opportunities and highlight their qualifications. Before you launch a social media campaign, it is important to survey the conversations already taking place so you can find the social media tools that are most resonating with the top candidates. To do this, determine the kind of information they are seeking about your corporate culture and job functions. Take notice, specifically, of where they are communications online. By identifying these patterns, you’ll be able to create a social media campaign that will appeal to the type of candidates for which you are looking.
2) Start the Conversation: Once you have a handle on the social media platforms the top talent is comfortable using, you will be able to recognize the means by which you should engage your audience. For example, if participants within your field are active on Twitter, you might consider launching a corporate account to disseminate job information and answer questions in real-time.
3) Let Your Stars Shine: Whether a company provides a platform for its employees or not, most are regularly using digital communication channels on a regular basis. Identify those employees who are already social media savvy and bring them in to help shape the corporate presence online. Providing current employees with the opportunity to become the online voice of your company, will enable authenticity to shine through and offer potential job applicants a glimpse into employee life at your company.
Using Social Media to Find a Job
Posted by: | CommentsGuest post by Abby Schoffman, Peppercom intern
Gone are the days when a private online existence was a good thing. If you’re looking for a job in PR, a digital presence is a must. Some like to call it personal branding. As someone who spent much of 2009 looking for an entry-level position, I know how important social media is to the job search. While you’re busy researching a company to prepare for an interview, they’re doing the same to get a feel for you. You need to make sure what they find represents you well.
If you’re not already developing your brand online, here are four ways to start using social media to benefit your job search:
1. Start tweeting. I’ve met and interacted with PR people from all across the country thanks to Twitter – people I would never have had the opportunity to talk with if it weren’t for social media. Twitter is a casual, no-pressure way to network. I’ve found job opportunities, been able to connect with people at companies I’ve applied to and even landed interviews because of Twitter.
If you’re looking for a job in the communication industry, it’s time to get on Twitter. Once you’re there, use your bio to let people know you’re looking for a job and your link to send people to your personal blog (assuming it’s appropriate), LinkedIn profile or online portfolio. (For more tips on using Twitter to find a job, check out this post.)
2. Follow and comment on industry blogs. PR is an industry where it’s important to know the latest news and trends. Blogs are a great way to stay informed and continue learning. Many PR bloggers have built a community of followers on their blogs, and the comment section is a great place to be involved in an insightful conversation.
You may not know where to start when looking for blogs to subscribe to, but if you’ve started following smart PR people on Twitter, check out the links in their bios. Most PR agencies also have some sort of blog, so be sure to look for those, too. Following PRiscope is how I found out about Peppercom and eventually landed my internship here.
3. Start your own blog. Blogging is a great way to showcase your writing skills and show that you know what’s going on in the industry. If you can’t dedicate the time needed to start your own blog, ask to guest post on one of your favorite PR blogs or become a contributing blogger. Having posts to share with potential employers is a great way to supplement your traditional portfolio.
4. Update your LinkedIn profile. That’s assuming you already have one, because you should. More and more recruiters are using LinkedIn as a search tool to find job candidates, so it’s important that your profile is complete. Use keywords, share links to your other sites and take advantage of the application that lets you feed your blog to your profile. Look at it as an opportunity to include anything you didn’t have space for on your traditional resume.
LinkedIn is also a great place for you to do research. It’s easy to find information about companies you’re interested in, their employees, the HR contact your e-mail should be addressed to, etc. You can also see if someone you know is connected to someone you want to know, which is a valuable tool when looking for a job.
(Another note about LinkedIn – I recommend joining @heatherhuhman’s group, #PRintern | #EntryPR. Heather does a good job pulling in PR job postings from all over the web.)
With these tips, you’ll be more in control of how you’re projecting yourself to potential employers. And the more you put into the digital space, the better the odds that those potential employers will find something that backs up the skills and qualifications listed on your resume.
