There are many things you can do on social networks: keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues, participate in interactive discussions on an unlimited number of topics, meet new people, spy on your children… However, they are also great places to network and find a job online.
Here are a couple of ideas for how some of the larger social networks can play a role throughout your job search process.
1. Create LinkedIn, Plaxo, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter accounts – These are some of the larger social networks that people use, so your first step is to build up your presence.
2. Start mining and working your connections – One of your cousins, past co-workers or classmates may be looking for someone to fill a sales job that you’re perfect for. So connect with them and ask if they have any leads to send your way!
3. Get referrals from your LinkedIn connections – This is a great opportunity for others to endorse your work. Potential employers can see all the wonderful things your previous employers and co-workers write about you even before they perform a reference check.
4. Use the Who Do I Know feature on SimplyHired.com – If you find a job on SimplyHired.com that you are interested in, by using this feature, you can see if you know anyone who currently works at that company, and recruit their help to get you an interview. For more info about using the In feature, check out the blog post Birthdays, LinkedIn and Dancing Bees.
5. Connect with hiring managers on Twitter – You can follow them to see if they tweet about open positions, or send them an @reply or direct message to ask if they have any opportunities for you. In addition, you can follow users who provide users feeds of jobs, such as @TweetMyJobs.
6. Use the I Am X applications on Facebook – There are a number of I Am X applications on Facebook where you can connect with people in your own profession, such as doctors, entrepreneurs, accountants or architects. Jobs are displayed and shared on each of these applications.
7. Use Simply Hired’s Jobs widget on MySpace – Not only does Simply Hired provide MySpace with all of the jobs in the MySpace Jobs section, but we have a Jobs widget that you can use to view and search for jobs that meet your search criteria.
