Lesson 9: What are social networks and how are they used to find a job

How do networks help me find a job?

As José Luis Orihuela, a university professor, says in his collaboration in the white paper La Ruta del Empleo, published in Infojobs:

“Social media are powerful, though not magical, tools for enhancing career opportunities in many sectors of economic activity. Like a good English garden, these platforms will bring much satisfaction to those who put quality time and work into them. In the era of connectivity, it is no longer an option to be on the networks, although it is not good to be in any way either. Before creating a profile you have to have a plan and before posting something you have to think twice.” José Luis Orihuela

How can I take advantage of social networks when looking for a job and/or business opportunities? We give you 10 reasons:

Online presence, make your name start to appear on the internet

2. Visibility in search engines, helps them find you when they “google” your name
3. Reputation building, make your name be perceived in your professional area in a different way
4. Creation of social capital, begins to accumulate useful relationships and contacts
5. Communication of values, the ones you have will be public on the internet
6. Access to the main page, if for example you create a website, you must link your social network profiles to your own operations center, your website or your blog
7. Networking, start to get them going to establish possible cooperations
8. Accessibility for direct messages, social networks are a way to contact you directly with one click
9. Dissemination of the portfolio of works, social networks can show your work, some are more visual than others, it depends on what you need to show, you will be interested in one network or another
10. Interaction with prescribers and brands, make them know you, that they perceive you as a reference in that field.

We must distinguish between professional networks and social networks. In social networks we basically have friends, people with whom you have established a friendship, in one way or another. In professional networks the relationship between users is professional. We don’t have “friends”, we have “contacts”. Anyone can join our network if we share a similar professional profile. In them, our user profile is our curriculum vitae: profession and current occupation, studies and training, contact details… But something else, like contacts with companies, my update wall, my professional groups, my skills, recommendations, etc…

In this way, relationships are established with other professionals with whom we have been able to coincide at some point: we studied together, we coincided in a company, we have made negotiations, we participate in the same group… But also because of affinity, because I have marked that person as a reference in my field, etc.

These networks, like the others, are constantly updated. They change their design to offer greater usability, they incorporate new applications, functionalities, they allow the integration of content from other networks or blogs.
But not only this. In professional social networks it is possible:
– Create and/or participate in forums on very different topics.
– Create events and invite contacts or members of a group.
– Recommend articles.
– They also allow you to create badges to insert them into our personal page…
– Refer friends and ask for recommendations.
– Follow companies or other professionals.
– Sign up for job offers that the network itself suggests, according to our profile
professional…
– Receive private messages.
– Know who has been interested in our profile. As a communication strategy for a
company, brand or institution, offer more than interesting potential.

Many users find in social networks an opportunity to make themselves known professionally, especially in these moments of crisis and unemployment. An opportunity to find a job or find professional collaborators. In addition, more and more companies are
they opt for social networks when selecting candidates.

Strategy and tools

Before getting involved in creating profiles on social networks, you should ask yourself where is the target audience with whom you need to connect. If, for example, you are looking for an unskilled job, LinkedIn will not be of much help. It is essential that, as we always say, you establish a strategy.

If you are going to create profiles on social networks, before you start, use this tool, Knowem, which will tell you if the name you put is already occupied on social networks.

https://knowem.com/

And how do I manage all my social networks?

We recommend using HootSuite, which is an application for web and mobile (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry and Android) to manage social networks. All your networks will be available in a single application and from there you can manage comments, publish, schedule your news, etc… It also has an automatic publishing tool every time you update your blog or website, through the RSS that are generated.

https://www.hootsuite.com/es/

Buffer is also another alternative, which even allows you to publish automatically every time your website has a new post.

https://buffer.com/

Manage content on social networks

Bitly helps you to share and analyze links, very useful when you have to put a long link on Twitter, which has limited characters.

https://bitly.com/

Spy on profiles and copy their strategies

In previous modules, we told you to take a look at the LinkedIn profiles of established professionals in your professional area. It is very useful to be able to see how that person has become a benchmark in his field and to see how he communicates and what social networks he uses. To do this, you can, in addition to your own observation, use Buzzsumo, which shows the most popular and most influential links by subject, your competition or any other account.

www.buzzsumo.com