Most times people just spend hours upon hours mindlessly scrolling through images of other people, comparing their lives to others, stalking their favourite celebrities, checking out who their ex is now dating and before you know it 5 hours have passed and its bedtime already.

The use of social media has become very rampant globally especially among today’s youth. According to a Pew survey in 2015, 94% of millennials actively used social media from their mobile devices daily.  Almost every millennial has at least 2 functional social media accounts which may be Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Facebook or YouTube and You wake up the next morning; first thing you do is pick up your phone (you don’t even know if you can walk) and start the same routine over again. Social media is such an underestimated tool and you can leverage on your addiction to your phone and social apps to your own benefit. How can you do this?

 

Know Your Target Market; you must be aware and conscious about who and what you are targeting through your social media. For example, if you aspire to get into paid employment in a field, you could brush up your LinkedIn profile and make it very professional, send out requests to people in your desired field and stay updated with events and networking opportunities. On other social media platforms, you could follow the organisations pages, that way you would be able to access when there are openings and opportunities first hand.

Let people know you are searching for a job; you never know who is watching so it is very important to let people that you are not currently employed and what field you would be willing to work in. if you are a graphic designer, frequently post some of your designs so that people would know what you can do, that applies to writing, photography, videography and almost every other field. Curate your post in such a way that they add value and are interesting and engaging.

 

Add your social profiles to your resume or website; whether you have a personal website or just a physical resume, you should include links to your social profiles as part of your contact information. Having an active social presence can make you look appealing to potential employers in a lot of ways. First, your website is a great place to flaunt your qualifications and certifications whether that’s a leadership degree, a fellowship or some other bragging rights like authoring a book or keynoting a popular conference. Second, your social profiles serve as “social proof” for your value and integrity as a person. Think of them as informal recommendations.

“When hiring for a position, I like to look at the social media profiles of candidates I’m considering before making them an offer,” said Matthew Van Niekerk, CEO of DataBroker DAO. “Having open social profiles displayed for your potential employer to see shows you have nothing to hide. They can get a peek at your personal life without asking you probing questions during an interview.”

 

Look professional in your search and develop your social media; take down those half-naked pictures of you on social media, no we do not want to see you smoking hookah, drunk and wasted on the floor or even dancing in the strip club. From time to time, google your name, there might be some unpleasant content there. It is important to do damage control on this before it costs you jobs and opportunities because trust me your employers are going to check.

 

Become A Thought Leader; You may think, “I’m just starting out; I’m not a thought leader.” But I bet there’s something you are an expert on or you can teach yourself to be. And it just might be the way you get noticed – and hired. The main idea is to love your topic and be committed to learning about it. Then, publish blogs on LinkedIn, chime in on Twitter Chats and build a personal (and social media) brand around it. (Pro tip: Set Google Alerts to ensure you don’t miss news on your topic of interest. Just by sharing this information in relevant networks will get you noticed.)

 

Ask For Connections; There are several ways to gain your own new connections, but there’s no shame in asking for them either. On LinkedIn, you can see if your connections are linked to others of interest – they’re called second or third connections. It should be fairly easy for you to ask your connections (if you’ve been maintaining these important relationships) to introduce you to someone of interest in their network. Just make sure you explain why you’re interested in a conversation.

 

Sources: https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewarnold/2018/04/26/6-ways-to-leverage-your-social-network-while-job-hunting/#69d26f022ac6

https://www.gqrgm.com/9-tips-leveraging-social-media-find-dream-job-2018/

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/284918