Leveraging social media to get your resume out there.

In my last article, I shared some tips on how you can get your resume to stand out from the rest. In this article, I’m going to talk about leveraging social media to make connections, and land you the job you’ve been looking for.

Socializing, for the most part, is consistently starting to rely on the digital realm. Facebook, Twitter, Myspace—they’re all channels that people use to connect with each other. The job market is doing the same.

Recruiters and employers have shifted to finding the right people online. Utilizing social media as a hiring tool is something everyone needs to become familiar with.

Become an Expert

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This one is really important. If you’re out there looking for a job, you need to prove to your potential employer that you know everything there is to know about what you want to be hired for. There are a bunch of ways you can achieve this online “expert” status:

  1. Twitter: Start a Twitter account and talk about things you know! Are you a writer? Talk about writing! Talk about the struggles, the joys and stories that you want to share with the world.
  2. Blog: Do the same thing on your blog, but in more detail. You can pepper your Twitter updates with your blog content.
  3. Network, network, network: The online world has made making contacts so much easier. Seek out people in relevant fields. Collaborate. Share. Your ability to make these social connections will prove well when you’re up for an interview.
  4. LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a very popular community for professionals. Each user has their own profile section that details information about themselves. Place your resume on here, search out contacts you already know and connect with new ones. Networking is a big part of social media, and making that social connection is very important.

Once you start building yourself online, you’ll notice how great it can look on your resume. Post your resume online through these various channels (especially LinkedIn and your blog) so that readers can browse it if they feel so inclined. Who knows what opportunities might spring up?

There’s an added bonus to all this too. You can glam up your resume to highlight all this extra-curricular activity. When a recruiter or employer sees all the added effort and initiative, they’ll only have good things to work with.