Networking is an integral component of job hunting. It helps job seekers make connections and build valuable relationships. You can find advice and contacts to help you make informed career decisions through these connections.
Nearly 85% of job seekers land their jobs through networking. It also helps you find unadvertised internships and job opportunities and can take place in a one-on-one setting or a group.
It’s mainly the social media sites that help you build a network. Not only do these sites help you interact and communicate with friends and family, but an active social media presence is an excellent way to demonstrate your brand, boost your professional network, and market yourself.
In this article, we shall look at some of the best social media sites you can use for professional networking and job hunting.
Stay with me.
Best Social Media Sites for Professional Networking and Job Hunting
1. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a top platform for job seekers looking for new opportunities actively. It is a list of companies and individual professionals, and the platform boasts about 750 million members worldwide.
LinkedIn has over 55 million companies listed and is believed to offer around 14 million open jobs. It is an excellent tool to help you know more people who can provide the job you are looking for or recommend you to your dream company.
If you have yet to become a LinkedIn member, you can do so through a quick and painless signup process. Once you register, you’ll get a chance to create a profile. Take your time to ensure your profile is thorough and thoughtfully represented.
LinkedIn requires you to add a photo of yourself to your profile. Since it’s a professional platform, ensure that the image reflects your professional side. The picture only appears as a small thumbnail. Therefore, a full-body photo won’t be necessary.
Make your profile public for people to recognize and connect with you. LinkedIn also allows you to customize your URL to make it easy to share with fellow professionals. As you edit your profile, add a summary explaining your professional experience, strengths, training, and skills.
Create a headline and choose your industry, as LinkedIn uses these crucial algorithms to avail your profiles of opportunities that may interest you.
Fill in the experience section as it’s basically your online resume, and besides your paid experiences, you can also add volunteer experiences.
LinkedIn is available in 25 languages. So, while updating your profile, include the languages you speak and the certifications you hold. Ensure that you add all the relevant information, including links to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Other aspects that make LinkedIn a perfect platform for networking and job hunting are recommendations. You can request a recommendation from your contacts, current or former supervisors, and affiliates, increasing your chances of being considered by recruiters.
2. Facebook
Facebook was designed to help you connect with friends, family, and other people you know. Through Facebook, you can share photos and videos, send messages, and get updates on what is happening around you.
There are controversies about whether Facebook is an excellent tool for networking and job hunting.
However, Facebook boasts 2.96 monthly users as of the third quarter of 2022, making it a perfect spot to connect with other professionals, ask for recommendations, help, and advice, and update your circle on where you are currently working or the job you hope to secure.
Since its inception in 2004, Facebook has undergone drastic changes. What started as a predominant domain for college kids or younger grew to attract older users who care more about their professional and career growth.
The key to making the best of Facebook is being conscious about what you share.
Although Facebook is more of an informal medium, it is widely used by companies for commercial purposes, including communicating with their staff, asking for customer feedback, and vetting and recruiting potential employees.
On realizing that more employers are using Facebook to source candidates, Facebook added a job section in 2017. The section connects users to 70 million businesses, and candidates can apply for a job as soon as they see a job post in their feed.
Once you expand your Facebook use to the professional realm, you need to carefully consider the information in your profile and the information you won’t wish your potential employers to see.
It’s a common practice for companies to conduct background checks on candidates. The best thing is that Facebook allows you to choose who sees what’s on your profile, so you may need to adjust your privacy settings for specific content to “close friends only.”
Simplify your profile by eliminating unnecessary widgets and graphics. Only post updates that are relevant to your career or job search.
Your friends are your most significant resources if you keep explaining your current career situation because chances are someone knows about an opportunity that suits you.
Also Read: Why Should We Hire You? Best Answers
3. Twitter
You can strategically use Twitter to hunt down that job you have been searching for. While you may be accustomed to Twitter as a platform to share personal status updates, you can also find the latest trends and follow current news.
Twitter is also a powerful site that connects job seekers to potential employers. It is a common practice to see companies announce vacancies on Twitter.
You can follow hiring managers or recruiters without making a formal connection. Twitter can be a bit overwhelming, given the content users update every second.
Luckily, there are a few tips to help you eliminate the noise and find an excellent career opportunity on this fast-moving site.
The first step is to optimize your profile. Since recruiters headhunt candidates on Twitter, you want to ensure that your Twitter is thoroughly customized to show up in their results.
Twitter only gives 160 characters, so make them count. Mention your qualifications, past work experiences, and the industry you work in. Use keywords that employers are likely to look for, for instance, “finance graduates,” and open your DMs to be easily contactable.
If you already follow hundreds of accounts, you can use Twitter Lists to sift through content to find relevant job vacancies. For instance, you can create a list of employers who offer remote work or those hiring individuals with your degree.
There is an option to make your lists public, but I recommend making them private for job seeking.
Organize your Twitter job search with TweetDeck. TweetDeck is the browser that lets you stay in touch with what is happening. With it, you can view lists, account information, trending topics, and messages at a glance. TweetDeck is easier to navigate on a desktop than on the phone.
Building a relevant network on Twitter takes time. Start by following companies you may be interested in working with, career fairs, recruitment firms, college professors, and thought leaders within your industry.
Start engaging with them regularly to build a relationship.
Another excellent way to make the best of Twitter is to maximize Tweet chats. Tweet chats are recurring content posted by the same account and may occur weekly, monthly, and usually simultaneously.
Also Read: Best Tweetdeck Alternatives
4. Instagram
Using Instagram for professional networking and job hunting is highly likely to be a low priority for most job seekers. Instagram is a popular social networking site for sharing photos and videos. But its rising popularity can be one of the untapped potentials for job seekers.
According to Jobvite, the use of Instagram for recruitment purposes rose from 18% to 37% between 2017 and 2020. This platform can give recruiters a deeper understanding of who their potential employee is based on the content they share.
For this reason, you can use Instagram to build a powerful personal brand. Post things that showcase your personality, values, experience, professional pursuit, and skills to enable recruiters to determine whether you are a good fit for their company or not.
Instagram has about 1.4 billion users as of the second quarter of 2022. About 500 million people use Instagram stories, while 63% of users, including companies, log in to Instagram at least once a day to spend an average of 28 minutes on the app.
Following companies that interest your career endeavors can unearth hundreds of opportunities. Following these companies can also give you a glimpse of the work environment, values, and culture.
You can also connect and engage with their recruiters through commenting, liking their posts, or adding valuable insights to their postings.
Create an Instagram account solely for professional use, even if you already have an account. This can help you separate your personal life from your work life.
Be clear on your expertise and make sure your account is public to allow anyone to view your profile whether they follow you or not.
Add a headshot photo and website link, too. This link can be your website, LinkedIn profile, online portfolio, or Twitter page. Sell yourself with 150 characters in the bio section. Talk about your current skills, the kind of job you are looking for, and your professional passion.
Social media sites can hurt your career if you are not keen on what to post. On your professional Instagram account, focus on career-related images. Share photos of yourself attending conferences or screenshots of a freelance project you just completed.
Often you’ll be tempted to post personal photos. But before posting them, ask yourself whether you wish your future employer to see them. If it doesn’t sit well, save such images for your personal account, or don’t post them at all.
Consider using the IGTV and Instagram Stories features to tap into the goldmine of targeted traffic. Creating videos demonstrating a project that you are working on or sharing a potential employer’s video can boost your profile and increase your chances of being noticed.
Adopt a regular and consistent posting schedule to enhance your personal branding and build your profile. Use hashtags to search for people to add to your network, open jobs, and even companies.
Be keen on top hashtags in your career field and use industry keywords to describe a photo you posted.
5. YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing site offering excellent networking and job-hunting platforms. It is the second largest search engine after Google and the second most visited website in the world.
YouTube is increasingly gaining popularity as an alternative job search tool as it presents unique opportunities for job seekers.
With YouTube, you will not only watch videos about effective job searching, but you can also use YouTube to promote yourself to potential employers. Start with uploading a video resume and a short personal introduction demonstrating your skills, personality, and talent.
You can also create a portfolio that speaks directly to your potential employer. Your portfolio and video resume demonstrate how your personality and creativity match a company’s culture.
Like any other social media site, you can only stand out when you brand your YouTube channel’s identity.
Create unique channel descriptions, keywords, titles, and thumbnails to gain more views. Add a profile picture to your profile, which must follow YouTube’s community guidelines. The image should be in one of the following formats: JPG, BMP, GIF, or PNG file.
6. Pinterest
Many people use Pinterest to create and share content in the context of visually oriented pinboards.
You should become more familiar with this tool as a platform for networking or job hunting. Still, more people are now using it to connect with potential employers to share their personal portfolios.
Pinterest is no longer a site for finding cute kittens, DIY projects, and recipes. When used for professional purposes, you can build a personal brand and meet like-minded professionals in your field.
Pinterest boasts 433 million monthly users as of the second quarter of this year. With this number, you can get a large pool of job-hunting and networking opportunities.
Once you establish your brand, keep pinning content related to your interests and passion for discovering what inspires you as a professional. Come up with a professional board, which is more of a virtual business card.
Once you have a professional board in place, pin your resume, inspiration for your career, and a few items from your portfolio. This board is an introduction to anyone who bumps into your account and wishes to learn more about you.
Pinterest is an excellent tool for curating and sharing content, especially if you already have a website or a blog. You can use Pinterest to share the content you publish or find on the web.
You can also use the tool to share what you aspire to do in life to help you connect with like-minded individuals.
Networking is all about engagement. Take time to like and comment on pins and offer thoughtful feedback. Collaborate with followers to discover your niche and grow your following.
Also Read: Worst Job Interview Answers & What To Say Instead?
7. TikTok
TikTok is no longer a Gen Z platform for sharing dance moves and pranks. TikTok is slowly transforming into a multi-million platform that is changing the face of digital communication. In fact, it is now considered a serious professional tool and a new effective recruitment tool.
Social media recruitment is on the rise. While TikTok is slightly behind in this area, you can still reap tremendous benefits if you choose it as your professional networking and job-hunting site. You’ll notice that educational videos are now getting more traction on TikTok.
TikTok is currently not packed with headhunters like LinkedIn and Facebook, meaning there is less competition and more attention to your job hunting and networking content. With over 138 million users in the US alone, chances are a good number of recruiters frequent the app.
To reap more from this tool, tap into the world of hashtags to create themed content and follow topics that inspire you. Use TikTok resumes, a recently added feature that allows you to apply to entry-level and experienced positions with the world’s best employers.
Through TikTok resumes, you can browse through job listings and submit a creative video CV. In your TikTok resume video, authentically showcase your experiences and skill set, and use #TikTokResumes in your caption when uploading your video to the platform.
Also Read: Why Should We Hire You With No Experience? Answering Tips & Best Answers
Final Thoughts
Networking is crucial for any job seeker. There’s no doubt that most opportunities come from recommendations and connections. To take advantage of these opportunities, you must be present on these social media sites.
The best part is that they cut across borders and include millions of individuals worldwide.
So, take your time and create a profile on these sites that you can proudly present to recruiters. You’ll be surprised to know the many opportunities waiting for you.
