Here are the top 3 social media tips for job seekers that I’ve found to be very useful:
- Get your LinkedIn profile updated with all the latest resume information and recommendations. If you’ve been recently laid-off, make sure to request recommendations from your previous co-workers. Also, jobs on LinkedIn are posted by a company hr representative or a hiring manager and in some cases you might have a connection with them (or a few degrees away). Expand your network so that you are one-step closer to the hiring manager. One last tip on LinkedIn, get involved in LinkedIn Answers and show your expertise on a particular topic by answering questions.
- Start a blog is a great way to show your enthusiasm for the industry that you are in and to show your expertise. Free hosting sites like wordpress (which this blog is hosted on) is a great way to start with minimal coding required. Remember a blog will showcase your grammar skills, your creativity, and can be accessed instantly in an interview (happened to me when a guy pulled out his iPhone and accessed my blog and started asking me questions about my latest post).
- Yes, now is the time to get a Facebook account. I know you’ve been hating all the poking and status updates of what your friends are having for lunch. However, re-connect with your former classmates and co-workers. Post a status message on Facebook or a note (their version of a blog) with something like this: “I’m looking for a job. Ping me if you know of any product manager job openings in the mobile industry”. You never know if your high-school classmate that you haven’t talked to in 15 years but you are connected to on Facebook have a job opening in his group.
That’s it. Be patience with social media and your blog. Tag your blogs apporpriately with keywords that you believe people will search for. If you are wanting to work for a consumer company, talk about it on your blog and tag it appropriately. It will come up in the social media manager’s Google Alerts. If you have more tips add a comment below. Talk to you soon,
-Randy
http://twitter.com/djksar
The Life of Randy Ksar 
Posted by Scott Webb on January 30, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Randy – have you come across Brazen Careerist? You could probably get your stuff posted there, it’s a Gen Y oriented career development site. I get their daily digest and they have some decent tips – it sometimes degenerates into Gen Y commiseration, but it’s worth looking at.
Posted by Randy Ksar on February 2, 2009 at 7:55 am
No I haven’t Scott. Thanks for letting me know about the site. Hope all is well. Talk to you later.