Why Social Media is important for job seekers in 2015

Hope year 2015 began at an exciting note for everyone. How about the new year resolutions? If you are a recent grad looking for a job or already working and looking for a  job change this year, I can suggest  something to add to your To-Do list in 2015… “Professionally, be more involved and active on Social Media, if you aren’t yet.”

Social hiring is the new trend

Yes, with growing number of employers turning to social sites for Hiring & Recruiting, it is no less than essential to have a good social media presence and awareness. No more limited to LinkedIn, HR also refer to a candidate’s Face book and Twitter profiles before making the final hiring decision. In fact, they are using these social media channels, including YouTube, to launch and spread their recruiting campaigns. Sharing some stats for 2014 social hiring:

  Click here to read the complete study

Generate references & showcase expertise

Does a Klout score really matter to get a job is still debatable. Not many organizations find the idea convincing but it is equally true that a strong social media persona influences the hiring decision in many ways. Your job might not give you the scope to exhibit your passion and interest in any other area, but social media does. You might be sales guy passionate for gadgets or a techie interested to work for environmental cause, social media is an open opportunity to follow your passion.  It helps to connect and engage with like-minded professionals, develop common interest and work upon them together, guiding and learning from each other. Yes, these social media connections serve great references in the professional world.

It makes job search easy

You do not really have to go thorough job sites and company’s career page each time to keep a check when they are hiring. Most employers invite candidates to follow their LinkedIn group, twitter handle and Facebook page to receive all hiring related news on their timelines and news feeds. So whenever your preferred employer is hiring, you get notified automatically. What more, you can join their online communities (if available ) to interact with the representative. Yes, it is as simple as it sounds.

Does that mean that job sites are less relevant? Not at all, they are and will always be preferred source of job search but social is the new hiring trend. If you are not missing on it, you are surely staying ahead on your job search.

All the Best 🙂