How popular you are on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn can help you to land a job, as more firms are looking for people who are well connected and influential, according to some digital experts.
These same experts tell us that social media and recruitment now mostly go hand in hand.
Of course, companies have long been looking to social media to weed out undesirable people who post unsavory things online. But now they are more often using LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to dig up new employees. They are listing job opportunities in these social media channels, and they also are getting more chatter going between job recruiters and job seekers on social media.
There is no doubt that social media is becoming a simply essential part of many firms’ recruitment strategies. Many recruiters say that it is much easier today to find talent through social media – much easier than just a few years ago.
According to a recent survey, about 65% of employers in the US use LinkedIn as one method to find new employees. About 50% use Facebook and 10% use Twitter.
Some companies will look at a prospective employee’s profile online to see if what the candidate writes there validates what he or she said in an interview.
If you say that you are an influential person and you do not have a strong Twitter or LinkedIn presence, it makes you not a very credible candidate, experts say.
Many recruiters first look to LinkedIn to see what experience people have, who their connections are and so forth. This helps to give recruiters a better idea of just how connected a person is to others in the industry.
Overall, by looking at your online profiles on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and sometimes Instagram, employers can better gauge if you are a good cultural fit for their company.