The divide between hiring managers and qualified applicants has never been wider. Social media is no longer a “unique” path for finding a job, it is now the most viable path. This means you need a social strategy to find your next job, and if this has you cringing take a deep breath and read some of the tips below. It’s not that difficult and the principles are the same. You want to make meaningful relationships and you want to appear valuable at every opportunity. Be careful but be proud of what you’ve done and try to have some fun with it.
The Huffington Post recently gathered 15 HR experts to see what advice they have for crafting their social strategies. Below we’ve listed the 5 that we really like.

“Never apply before first searching for employees on social media that either previously worked in a company you worked for or graduated from the same school you did. Then call them and get them to be your employee referral. This will increase your chances by 14 times.”
– Gerry Crispin, Co-Founder of CareerXroads

“Keyword tag your LinkedIn profile. Many people don’t know that if they use keywords and key phrases throughout their LI profile, especially those that recruiters will search for, they increase their likelihood of being found.”
– Lida Citroen, Principal at Lida360 and International Personal Branding Expert

“The most memorable candidates for me are those who are just nice. Nice in what way? Well, they reach out and respond politely. They say thanks for the offer, even if they are not interested in the role I reached out to them for.”
– Kristin Rogers, ExtendMyStaff

“Build relationships with recruiters through social by discovering and sharing relevant info that we find interesting.”
– Michael Goldberg, Head of Talent Acquisition at American Heart Society

“Social Media is just the gym, you still have to do the heavy lifting and close the deal in real time”
– Andres Traslavina, Global Recruiting Manager at Whole Foods Markets

The good thing about social media is that it’s free. You get to publicize yourself at no cost. Of course that means everyone is doing it and you have to work harder to stand out. But a day’s investment with weekly management is all that it’ll cost you, and the benefits are huge.

About NextGen

NextGen is the brainchild of longtime telecom professionals with nearly 50 years of experience and millions of dollars in Telecom Recruiting Services. We focus on establishing long term relationships with our clients and candidates so we can recruit the best and the brightest in the telecom industry. This ‘quality over quantity’ approach is at the heart of everything we do and has resulted in successful job placements at Fortune 1000 firms worldwide.