With the growth and importance of Internet in the latest generation, one important factor of ‘Social Media’ also has popped up. Today this media occupies most of the bandwidth for an individual over the net in a day and is not only used for meeting with friends, but also one of the locations to seek jobs online. This media is also used these days to get candidates and most of the companies round the globe are using this medium to look for talents suitable for the vacant positions existing in the company. The advantages linked to this option is discussed in the below article.

Social Media used for Job Search: There are many portals these days which are a medium and in scope of job search. However, top few players in this regards are ‘LinkedIn’, ‘Facebook’ and ‘Twitter’. All of these used one single concept of developing links from one user to another to advertise and promote the requirements from both recruiter and job seeker. According to a study done recently more than 90% of the companies around the globe are using Social Media to fill up the vacant positions in their company which is a huge percentage. At the same time there are only around 40% of the job seekers that are using this option for fulfilling their job requirements. Study also states that in the last decade the job search through social media is increased and almost doubled for the age group 25 to 34 years. At the same time there is a growth of around 98% in the age group of 35 and older seeking job over social media. Both the parties also keep certain details of their profile open to be viewed by anyone which increases the opportunities.

Strategies for seeking jobs through social media: We all are very well versed with the social media these days and as stated above is consuming most of our bandwidth. Still if you are looking for a job over the internet through this media, you will need certain strategies to be implemented. Let’s look at few of them:

1. Keep it professional: Though it looks that Facebook and Twitter are social website sand are mostly used for chatting and sharing thoughts with friends, if you are looking for a job you need to keep your profile as professional as it can be. Update your profile in a timely manner with all the recent details.

2. Settings of the account: Always use the privacy settings in the account. It may be as usual to show your photos or certain write-up to your friends. However, in case of searching your job these photos can be objectionable and recruiters may refrain from contacting you.

3. Description about self: Usage of appropriate language for describing yourself helps in getting jobs faster to a large extent. Make sure that you use proper English. At the same time some websites like Twitter has a word limit defined to be 140 words and therefore, you should be very careful in describing your profile in a way that it suffice all the details with being in the limits.

4. Features on the website: One another thing need to be kept in mind while updating the profile is to ensure that you are aware of all the features of the portal or the website you are adding your profile into. For Example, in case of LinkedIn, you get different fields for professional summary, fields to add experience details with from and two dates (in case the profession is diversified), short description, keywords, Organizations worked with, certifications, educational qualifications and many more. It is not important that you utilize all of it and get your profile flooded, however, make the best use of these features to showcase the best to the prospective recruiters. One another feature is to ‘Endorse’. Use your other professional links and ask them to endorse you on the network. This is like a professional referring or introducing another professional on the internet.

5. Make the right links: It is a tendency to make friends and with the introduction of social media, this can be done with just a click of a button. The suggestion is to use this feature conservatively and make right connections. Unnecessary connections may also lead to fruitful recruiters not viewing the profiles.

6. Initiate and keep the search ongoing: The above points mostly explain about the content to be used on the profiles. However, this should be kept in mind that when we are updating our profile, the recruiters are also updating their profiles at the same time. To get the jobs faster, keep a watch in certain relevant recruiters. It may also help in keeping our profiles up to date. You can modify your profile and even upgrade yourself as per the current requirements in the market or from the recruiters.

7. Stay connected: Another advantage with these social networking sites is that, all are available as apps that can be accessed from a tablet or smart phone. This enables people to stay connected which can be en-cashed further in getting better jobs.

Author Bio: Nargis Seikh is a professional writer currently focusing on the extensive domain of job search and career building. Currently working with job portal Naukrigulf.com