In the earlier days, applying for a job meant preparing a top-notch resume and dropping them off or posting them directly to the employing companies. Otherwise, one would have had to keep a lookout for eligible job openings in newspaper adverts where one could apply among a plethora of others.
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Can Social Media Be Useful for Students to Find a Job?
Thanks to the present digital blessings, finding a job after or even during college is much easier. Social media platforms offer many digital support options for a student to apply for a job. Understanding the mechanisms behind how this entire process works beyond just sharing memes and photos, however, isn’t a piece of cake.
In this blog, we will decode some of the mysteries about the inner workings of social media platforms and how you can use them to find a job.
Why Use Social Media?
In the beginning, social media was a means to keep in touch with a group of people who were scattered across geographical barriers. This was usually limited to young college-going students.
Now, social media plays a much bigger role in society, where it is utilised by corporations and governments for business as well as administrative and political purposes. For example, the Department of Homeland Security collects data from social media profiles of potential immigrants to evaluate and categorise their process.
The power of social media extends well across high school circles nowadays and plays a major part in our everyday social processes.
- It helps to identify and nurture ideas for a bigger audience
- It helps create trends and analytical observations out of them
- It helps to direct online traffic towards your brand
- It helps to market and maximize the reach of your brand, thus maximizing its market potential.
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How to Use Social Media to Its Full Capacity?
Social media used intelligently with proper knowledge of inner workings and strategic tactics for networking can yield brilliant results in your job search or career choice.
These are some of the most valuable tips which you can utilise to maximise the benefits from social media platforms on your quest or that dream job or career path.
1. Networking is Important
Among social media platforms, Facebook leads when it comes to networking in comparison with Twitter or LinkedIn. Facebook has a far wider reach among friends, co-workers and colleagues when compared to these websites. A friend on Facebook might be on the lookout for a business partner while you might be looking for some independence to work with your skill set.
Here networking might play a big role in making these requirements come together for a successful business venture. Hence, you can see how networking is an important offering of social media platforms which you can utilise for your job search or career exploration.
2. Update Your Information Everywhere
A Google search of your name could give you a very interesting idea as to how updated your digital profile is, on the internet. Your potential employer could reach out to you based on the digital information available about you. Thus, you can understand that updating your digital profile across all social media platforms is essential to present yourself to the digital marketplace.
Start updating all your public social media accounts – and not just with life events, every little detail, like the new course that you enrolled in, the certification that you achieved, the appreciation note that you received from your professors or your supervisor during your internship. All of these put together your digital image, which is what people looking to employ or people looking for creative ideas are on the lookout for. This will make your place prominent in their search list.
3. Search for Potential Employers
When it comes to using social media to find jobs, remember that online profiles are important for both job seekers as well as recruiters/employers. While employers search for and go through your social presence, you should take the same course of action.
According to experts, the first step to one of the most effective ways to search for information on potential employers is to make a list of five to ten companies in your field of interest. Next, start following them on Twitter and informal platforms like Instagram to get an idea of the personalities and ideologies of the companies.
This lets you gather information on the company values, performances, types of employees they prefer, and the work culture. You can now start building or modifying your online presence to gel with the company’s values or chuck them from the list if you don’t like their ideologies.
4. Importance Of Hashtags
If you think that using hashtags on platforms like Twitter or Instagram is just another fad, you would be wrong. Hashtags are often used as concluding points after a witty post, but they are more than that. The practical function of hashtags is to serve as keywords to search content faster and more effectively.
This means when you search for design jobs, you can write “design jobs” in the search bar and contents grouped under #designjobs and similar hashtag groups will come up in the search list. Using hashtags, you can also flag your content, so that recruiters can find your profile when they search for similar postings.
5. Keep in Touch
Keeping in touch has never been easier since the rise of social media. The use of social media extends more than simply following your favourite celebrities or chatting with friends. It is a tool that you can utilise extensively to increase your employment prospects. With social media, you can directly connect with potential employers.
For instance, it is much easier to contact an employer via LinkedIn than trying to find their email addresses. At the same time, connecting via platforms like LinkedIn is considered more acceptable in the professional world since it was developed primarily to create professional networking.
Experts recommend against using platforms like Instagram or Facebook that are geared towards more personal and casual encounters, to get in touch with recruiters. You do not want to mix your personal life with your professional one. Twitter and LinkedIn are the best choices for professional purposes.
I hope you find this article helpful.
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