Social Media

Another day, another cool infographic about social media and job search. Recruiters, employers and jobseekers are all out there using social networks. But what do people think about using LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus for career purposes? 

Our friends at Jobvite commissioned a study of 2,049 adults aged over 18 across the US, asking them for their opinions on using social media when finding a job. 

It discovered that though almost all of those surveyed seemed to be socially active, just 16% used social networks solely to find their most recent job - but a massive 54% have used Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn in some way. 

Here's an interesting result: Most job search activity takes place at Facebook (44%), LinkedIn (26%) and Twitter (23%).  

Other key findings from the study were that:  

• 45% of those employed were open to a new job
• 86% of active and passive job seekers have a social profile
• 40% are 'super social' with over 150 contacts
• One in six found the last job through a social network  

The eternal task of finding a job has undergone a couple of huge transformations in the past few years. Around the turn of the millenium, Craigslist revolutionized the job hunt by taking a city’s worth of classified sections and condensing them into a single, easy-to-navigate web page. Now job hunting is undergoing another big shift – this time into the world of social media.
 
A new breed of work searchers – call them ‘social job seekers’ – are utilizing the big social networks in ingenious ways in order to find their dream jobs, and so far they’re having great success. It turns out, the more you use a social network, the more likely you are to find a job through the service: 1 in 4 ‘super social seekers’ successfully network through Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. This infographic from MBAOnline.com clarifies how you can search for jobs on Facebook and other social media tools.
 
Be sure to check out 5 Ways To Use Facebook for Job Search as well.

Image credit MBAOnline.com

Our friend and social media for job search expert Joshua Waldman recently released this infographic along with his new book Job Searching with Social Media for Dummies. 

Key takeaways from this infographic: 

 - 89% of companies will use social media networks to recruit in 2011
- 45% of companies will use Twitter to find talent, compared with 80% using LinkedIn and a surprising 50% using Facebook
- Amusingly, over 2,000 people on LinkedIn have the same name as individuals on the FBI’s top 10 most wanted list

See our interview with Joshua Waldman where he talks about he importance of personal branding and having a proper strategy to get success with social media.  

If your company wants to develop a social media in recruitment strategy, Link Humans can help!

The other day, my colleague told me a crazy story about a candidate who was instructed to log into her Facebook account during an interview so the hiring manager could see it. Surprisingly, the candidate – in relaying her story to my colleague – seemed more concerned with whether or not she would be hired than she was with what many would consider an abuse of power and invasion of privacy.
 
The whole thing left me wondering: When it comes to using sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for recruiting – what we call social recruiting – how far is too far?   
  
With so many nuances, and so many (as yet) unwritten rules, how can recruiters best utilize social media to source quality candidates and assess whether they would be a good fit? Thankfully, there are some best practices emerging to help recruiters know when they’ve pushed the proverbial envelope too far – as happened with my colleague’s friend.
  
Beyond learning the hard way what works and what doesn’t, hiring professionals are discovering a new line of recruiting applications and tools designed to help them rise above the same old hashtag to better identify, connect with and place viable candidates.
  

We all know recruiters use social media to screen candidates on a daily basis. But how are they doing this?
  
The good folks down at Reppler recently conducted a survey of 300 professionals who are involved in the hiring process at their company to understand the use of social networks for screening job applicants. The results of this survey are shown in this infographic below.

  
3 key takeaways from the study:

1. Whether you like it or not, hirers are using social networks to screen job applicants. This means it is important to carefully manage your image on these types of sites.

2. Facebook and Twitter are being used a lot to screen job applicants. On Facebook and Twitter, we believe hirers are trying to get a more personal view of a candidate, rather than the resume-like view they will see on LinkedIn.

3. Hirers are looking at the social networking profiles of candidates very early in the process. This means that job seekers need to have their online act in order before they begin looking for a job.

The bottom line is that it is important for users, whether they are looking for a job or building up their professional reputation, to manage their online image across the different social networks they use.
  
If you are interested in learning more about social media in recruitment, check out Link Humans, a social recruiting consultancy based in London.

Source: Reppler