Is social media the job hiring wave of the future? Possibly. It’s amazing how social media can connect you to people all over the world. Interested in a PR job in Chicago? You could easily “connect” with the head of Human Resources at a PR firm in Chicago on LinkedIn. How about a job in finance in China? Try “following” some Chinese financial corporations on Twitter – maybe they’ll turn around and “follow” you too! It seems there’s a new social media site every day; and then a few days later there’s a version of that site for your  cell phone (TwitterBerry anyone?). It’s easier than ever to connect with potential employers. The question is: is this a good thing or a bad thing? Do you want your future boss seeing the drunken pictures you and your friends took last week and then posted on Facebook? Doubtful. However, would you like your potential employer to see your outstanding academic record and all the volunteer work you’ve posted on your LinkedIn account? Definitely. Social media can be very tricky.

Dan Schawbel posted an article called “7 Secrets to Getting Your Next Job Using Social Media” on Mashable.com. According to Schawbel, “there will be 1.5 million college graduates this year, yet the job growth rate is at a six-year low, at 1.3%!” He explains that simply sending a resume to businesses and waiting for a response is a thing of the past. “Social networks are starting to become part of the criteria that both hiring managers and college admissions officers are using to weed out applicants. One in five hiring managers conduct background checks using social networks (primarily Facebook), while one in ten college admissions officers do the same.” He offers seven tips for using social media to find a job.

1. Conduct a people search instead of a job search
2. Use attraction-based marketing to get job offers
3. Be proactive on Twitter
4. Capitalize on LinkedIn
5. Advertise your brand using AdWords and Facebook Social Ads
6. Construct a video resume and upload it to YouTube
7. Subscribe to blogs that have job listings

I hadn’t thought of some of these things before and I found them really interesting. I think that posting a video resume on YouTube is a very innovative idea if you have the confidence to do it; which I don’t think I have. For a more elaborate description of these seven tips click on the Mashable.com link above.

An article on eHow.com by Kat Hasenauer lists some pros and cons of using social media for job hunting. One pro that she lists is that you can easily reach a wide network. She suggests “tweeting” that you’re looking for a job. Perhaps one of your thousands of followers could suggest something. Another pro is that potential employers can quickly look at your profile and see what your interests are as long as your interests are evident in your social networking activity. One last pro is that it creates conversation. Social networking makes conversation easy and you can ask a question about your resume or your cover letter on a social media site and get answers from hundreds of different people. Hasenauer also lists some cons of social media. The first con is that social media blurs the line between your personal and professional life. Gone are the days when it was ok that your Facebook profile picture featured you in a skanky outfit with a Budweiser in your hand. Not ok anymore. You should appear mature and professional on your profile. The other con that she lists is that it could create awkward current employment situations. This means that if you already have a job you should be careful about using social networking to openly search for a new job. It’s probably not a good idea to tweet that you’re looking for a new job when your current boss is one of your Twitter followers. I doubt he/she would take it very well.

“The best way to get a job is through networking.” This is how Rachel Levy begins her article on About.com titled “How to Use Social Media in Your Job Search.” We’ve all heard this phrase hundreds of times. So many times, perhaps, that we tend to want to respond with “DUH!” Maybe that’s just me… Anyway, because we’ve all heard this so many times, it must be true. But what about online social networking? Well Ms. Levy thinks social networking has the potential to work just as well as face-to-face networking; possibly even better. She talks about the three best (in my opinion) social media sites for job-search networking. The first she lists is LinkedIn. Levy says that if you’re not on LinkedIn you definitely need to hop on the bandwagon. She explains the different ways you can use LinkedIn in your job search including performing company searches, browsing job listings, mass e-mailing your LinkedIn connections, and linking your blog and Twitter accounts. Next she talks about Twitter. Levy says that the “best part of Twitter is that it allows you to connect with people you don’t know, based on common interests.” The valuable assets of Twitter that she lists include basic networking, job posting, and connecting to all kinds of people and companies. Finally, Levy discusses Facebook. While she admits that she, like most of us, uses Facebook simply for connecting with friends and family she also says that it can be a great way to network and find potential jobs. The Facebook tools that she lists for job hunting are notes and status updates which can both be used for informing people of your employment situation and ask for help or suggestions.

In my opinion, social media is a great thing. I think it makes it easy to connect with people based on your interests and to learn more about other people. On the flipside, social media makes it easy for other people to learn a lot about you too. It’s a way for you to create your own brand and then to sell it. So, what do you want to tell the world? Are you a mature professional with well-rounded interests or are you a wild child who just likes to have fun (not always a bad thing depending on your career path – think Lindsay Lohan). So, figure out who you want to be, adapt your profiles, and start networking.

Talk to you soon!

- Allison