Searching for a job has always been a pretty routine task for job seekers. Update your resume, write a cover letter specific for the job you are applying for and submit those documents to the hiring manager.

As the years have gone by, the job seeking and hiring process has taken another direction. Dropping off a resume and cover letter has changed to submitting with the click of an “upload” button. Hiring managers and recruiters have progressed from evaluating a few applicants to possibly hundreds depending on the job opening.

With the influx of applicants over the internet, one of the major challenges for job seekers is “how to stand out from the crowd” when it comes to applying for a job you really want. Well, if you are looking for a way to help you stand out, then you should pay attention to what comes next.

Your job search needs to get social.

No, we aren’t talking about heading out to your local watering hole and chatting up a few people. We are talking about your social networking accounts that are currently being used to strike up heated political debates, bash or celebrate your favorite sports teams and ruin every picture in the world by making it a meme.

In the past, we have been very critical of how you utilize social media because of the impact your comments and posts can have on your perception before you even meet a hiring manager. This is still absolutely true, as companies are moving more and more to vetting a candidate’s social footprint before bringing them in for a job interview.

With this in mind, social media has become a major platform for employers and recruiters to find top-tier talent in the market place. If you are not searching for jobs on your favorite social media networks, you could be missing out on the career change you have been searching for.

Don’t believe us? Let’s take a look at some recent statistics from a report published by Recruitics.com.

• “79% of job seekers use social media in their job search. This figure increases to 86% for younger job seekers who are in the first 10 years of their careers.”
• “1 in 4 job seekers use social media as their primary tool for job searching.”
• “Of job seekers using social media in their job search…67% use Facebook, 45% use Twitter, 40% use LinkedIn, 31% use Instagram, 25% use Pinterest, 17% use Snapchat.”
• “Nearly half of all employee referrals come in through social media.”
• “9 of 10 companies use some form of social media to attract, source and engage qualified talent.”
• “Plus, more than half of all recruiters rated candidates sourced from social media as “highest quality.”
• “Only 4% of recruiters are not using social media in their recruiting efforts.”
• “The top 3 social channels used by recruiters are LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.”
• “Job seekers are on Facebook, while recruiters are on LinkedIn.”

There is a lot of data in the bullet points above, so instead of going through them one by one—let’s talk about two specific points and how they relate to your job search.

“Job seekers are on Facebook, while recruiters are on LinkedIn.”

This data point had some pretty big variance. According to the infographic, 67 percent of job seekers are on Facebook while 55 percent of recruiters are on there. In regard to LinkedIn, 87 percent of recruiters are using the platform, while only 40 percent of job seekers are seeking jobs on there.

What does this tell us?

For a job seeker, you need to spend considerably more time on LinkedIn than you are now. If you have not logged in recently, the network has gone through a major overhaul and really improved the user experience. There is more content sharing, more featured comments from industry leaders and easier job visibility. With more and more people who can help you take the next step in your career path active on LinkedIn, you need to take the time to make sure you are properly represented on the network.

If you are a recruiter or hiring manager, the time is now to spend more time on Facebook, especially since they added a new “Jobs” feature for your company pages. If you have not checked it out yet, you can simply add your job posts in this section, which will be available to job seekers searching in your region. You can also boost your job posts to help increase awareness.

“1 in 4 job seekers use social media as their primary tool for job searching.”

Only 25 percent of job seekers using social media as their primary tool was intriguing, given the fact that 79 percent of them are using social media in their job search. Maybe it is a lack of trust in comparison to the traditional job boards or applying on a company’s website, or maybe it has something to do with the responsiveness of whoever is running the social account with the job posting on it—but there is something missing here for job seekers in the social process.

The gap between those using social media for their job search and those using it as a primary tool is just too large. Companies need to be more proactive in responding to candidates on social media to create that trust. If recruiters are finding their best candidates through the various platforms, why would you not want more job seekers using social as their primary tool for job searches?

Final Word

Job seeking in 2017 has advanced way past where it was 10 and 20 years ago. If you are not taking advantage of all possible avenues to better your career prospects, you will continue to be “waiting in line” in the sea of resumes hiring managers receive online for their jobs.

Just like when you are spending a little more time crafting a cover letter, you need to spend a little more time crafting your social networking persona and leveraging the platform to land quality job leads. As company social accounts become more and more active in responding and engaging with their followers, your pro-activity could really stand out when it comes to the hiring process.

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