Use social media to find a job

Job hunting stinks. But social media can help you expand your network and uncover opportunities you might never have found otherwise. I’ve spent hours urging my job hunting friends to engage in social media, so I was happy to discover a basic guide for them: How to Find a Job on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

Powerful tips for making connections that pay

I especially like the tips on page xvi, which I’ve listed below. The boldface sentences come from the book. My opinions follow.

• Update your status often. I try to update my LinkedIn status line daily. Frequency is a tough call. Update too often and you’ll annoy some visitors to LinkedIn. Update too rarely and you won’t be seen by the people whom you want to reach.
• Keep your information fresh and current. For example, linking to news articles on the day that they appear turns you into a source that your readers will look to for the latest content.
• Connect with others and offer help whenever you can. Social media relationships work best when they’re a two-way street.
• Comment on what you see. Showing interest in others gets them interested in you.
• Use the medium: Post pictures, videos, music, whatever is appropriate to the site and your situation. You may decide against posting personal photos to LinkedIn. However, posting links to articles with eye-catching photos may attract more attention to your links.
• Be respectful of others’ time. Don’t make unreasonable demands.

I use all of these techniques and prioritize them in roughly the order given above.

This book is good for a LinkedIn newbie

Despite the title’s listing of four social media channels,  How to Find a Job on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ focuses on LinkedIn. If you’re unfamiliar with LinkedIn, the book is a good introduction.