Using Social Media to Get in Front of Recruiters

For a job opening employers can sometimes receive thousands of resumes. Among that stack, getting prospective employers to notice your employability skills can be challenging.

A good resume or a strong cover letter can help, but with elevated competition and sparse job openings you may have to employ some creativity in order to get recruiters and hiring managers to notice you. In addition to replying to job postings, you should find ways to proactively share your experience and expertise. According to the experts who served on the “Job Ready or Not?” panel at Bryant & Stratton College Online, more and more employers are turning to social media as a passive and an active form of recruitment. During the event, Heather Tinguely, Program Manager of Global Talent Labs at Microsoft offered some advice on how to use social media to get noticed professionally.

Complete your profile There are many ways to post your professional qualifications on social media, but the most basic is to make sure your profiles are complete. Ms. Tinguely suggested when you set-up your profile say, “‘I went to school here,’ or ‘I majored in this,’ or ‘This is my last job title.’ Most companies have things in place where we can pull that data and then start to build passive pipelines of candidates – people that have not applied to our company, but people [who] we want to reach out to proactively. So make sure that your LinkedIn profile is up to date.  Make sure that you have references on there, because that’s your virtual [resume].”

Share it! Social media networks lend themselves naturally to sharing. While you may be used to sharing things like your weekend plans, a photo of your red velvet waffles at brunch, or a funny video from your brother these sites can be used to share professional ideas. Try sharing an article on LinkedIn by a leader who has your dream job or tweeting your opinion on changes taking place in your desired field of work. Since the people in charge of hiring are likely on these networks as well, it can be a great way to show you are passionate, engaged in the space, and knowledgeable.

Make yourself easy to find As recruiters and hiring managers engage in more passive recruiting tactics, Ms. Tinguely suggests that you take a look at what they might find if they search for you online. As you search for a job (and even after you’ve received that coveted position) regularly enter your name into your favorite search engine to see what comes up first. Then when you know what’s out there you can start to use social media to create a personal brand. “See if you can actually start controlling that message and building your personal brand or identity a little bit better online,” says Ms. Tinguely. “Get your own URL with your name, go on WordPress, start a blog, make sure that all of your social links that you want employers to see are there, along with portfolios or CVs.”

Companies get creative too Ms. Tinguely also noted that companies are changing the ways they source candidates. For example, at Microsoft they started a strategy called “compete intercept.” According to Ms. Tinguely this is the practice of setting up “feelers on Twitter, and every time a candidate would tweet out, ‘I just interviewed with X company!’ – you can insert our biggest competitor in there – we would set up an auto-respond to that tweet, and basically say, ‘We’ll interview you tomorrow.  Here’s our direct line.’” In that way, Microsoft has been able to find qualified candidates who had not found them yet. So as you continue to build and add to your social media profiles, don’t forget they can be great tools for getting in front of prospective employers. Hiring managers are out there and you could be a great fit for their team!

Bryant & Stratton College Online is dedicated to helping students improve their employability skills and become job ready. Through outcomes-based education and career training, Bryant & Stratton College Online helps students learn the technical skills as well as the soft skills they’ll need to be successful in a career. If you are interested in learning more about the online degree programs at Bryant & Stratton College Online, please call 1.888.447.3528 to speak with an admissions representative.