Instructor: Kevin Niemi...The tools and tips you need to start building a successful personal brand...

Social Media for Job Searching 2016-03-23

KNMG Solutions Ltd. 1

Instructor: Kevin Niemi

Copyright 2015 KNMG Solutions 1

The tools and tips you need to start building a successful personal brand online

Kevin Niemi◦ [email protected]

Background in Computer Science

and Business

Instructor at North Island College

in the Interactive Media and Graphic

Design program, for eCommerce and Web Technologies

Started KNMG Solutions to provide consulting and training on Social Media and IT




What is your name?

How comfortable are you with social media (Facebook and Twitter)?

Do you have a LinkedIn account?


Facebook and LinkedIn basics

Why is Social Media Important?◦ How what’s out there will affect you

Advanced Ideas◦ Privacy

◦ Best practices

Personal Marketing Strategies◦ Leverage your social media to find job opportunities




A social platform◦ Employers understand that Facebook is social, and

they expect to see personal content

◦ Your posts, your pictures, and the posts and pictures that your friends share about you create an overall impression

◦ They use this information to try to decide whether you will fit in with the company culture


A social platform◦ Company culture is different depending on the type

of company and job you are applying for

High tech companies tend to be young, fast paced and edgy

Banks and law offices tend to favour reserved and responsible attitudes

◦ No company is going to be impressed by bad spelling, unsocial comments and behaviour, negativity, etc.




Social Media “Rule of Thumb”

Would you post it on the lunch wall at work, or email it to your boss?◦ If the answer is no, then you shouldn’t post it or

share it online.

◦ Best to assume everything you share on social media will be public.


Overview and basics◦ Profile

◦ News feed

◦ Timeline

◦ Posts

◦ Messages

◦ Tagging




A professional networking site

Very important to create as complete a profile as possible

Roughly 90% of recruiters actively search for and research candidates through LinkedIn


Overview◦ Profile

◦ Connections

◦ Companies

◦ Groups

◦ Jobs

◦ Updates – the LinkedIn version of posts

Added to your activity in your profile, and shared to connections




For a complete profile, include at least the following:◦ Industry and postal code◦ A current position with description◦ Two more positions (past experience)◦ Education◦ At least five skills◦ Profile photo◦ At least 50 connections◦ A summary◦ Work samples or projects◦ Volunteer experience


Connections◦ Get started with a few key connections◦ Visit the ‘People you may know’ section

Suggests people to connect with from your current friend network

Activity Suggestions◦ Easy way to stay in touch with connections◦ Professional version of ‘happy birthdays’

Like, Comment and Share other people’s updates




Updates◦ Short blurbs about things happening in your life

Posts ◦ Essays or opinion articles

◦ Should be high quality

◦ Stay organized in a library for others to browse


Potential employers are searching social media before hiring◦ Over 50% of employers now search social media as

a standard practice when evaluating a potential employee

◦ How can candidates make this work to their advantage?

◦ How could this hurt their chances to land their dream job?

A candidates public profile acts as an informal cover letter




People Like Shortcuts (& recruiters are people)

Scenario:◦ Two equally qualified candidates apply for a job and

their resumes and cover letters are good

◦ Candidate A has a great social media presence: the hiring manager can see they have a good personality and their activities supports their application information

◦ Candidate B has no online presence

◦ Which candidate will be invited to an interview first?


Your public social media presence can either

support or discredit all the claims you

make on your resume and in your cover letter




You claim to be punctual, but your status updates regularly mention being late and disorganized

You claim to be ambitious and motivated, but your timeline is full of updates about how you just spent 3 hours playing Farmville, Candy Crush, or the latest fad time-waster

◦ A disconnect between your resume and social media presence casts doubt on everything you say.


You claim to be community minded, and your tagged in photos at charity fundraisers and community events

You claim to be a team player, and your profile shows you’re an active member of sport and social leagues and you coach a junior league team.




Begin a campaign of positive impressions◦ Post positive status updates that celebrate successes and

highlight the personality attributes employers would like to see

Edit the following:◦ Your photos◦ The pages you like◦ The groups you belong to◦ The apps you have installed◦ Untag yourself in ‘questionable’ content posted by friends (you

can’t remove content posted by others, but you can disassociate yourself from it)

This information can often be found even if you have your privacy settings restricted◦ Facebook privacy settings also change often enough that it can be

hard to keep up with them


Join groups and like pages for things that will reflect well on you from the perspective of a potential employer

Share status updates reflecting actions you are taking to improve your skills

Courses you are taking

Books you are reading

Personal goals you are achieving

“Like” and “Follow” companies you would potentially like to work for




Privacy Settings◦ It’s complicated

◦ It changes pretty regularly

◦ Don’t risk posting ‘questionable’ content

You can’t be certain who will see it

◦ Read the details here:

https://www.facebook.com/help/325807937506242/


Privacy Settings◦ Privacy Checkup

3 steps to set up basic privacy settings going forward


https://www.facebook.com/help/325807937506242/



Privacy Settings◦ Use the “View as” functionality to see what you timeline

looks like to the public, or to a certain person

◦ Turn on Timeline review for everything

Allows you to review everything you’re tagged in, before it appears on your own timeline.

Does not stop the post from happening


None of these settings prevent information and photos about you from being shared online◦ Preventing yourself from being tagged in a photo

just makes it less likely to be found by a potential employer

◦ Best to be safe and minimize actions in public that will not be received well by prospective employers




Tips for Success

Be active◦ Home page

Share status updates and relevant posts

Use the ‘keep in touch’ box to like and comment on relevant milestones of your contacts

Follow Companies and Groups that relate to your desired career

Look at other people’s profiles to find interesting groups and companies to follow


Skills and Endorsements◦ Enter as many skills as is reasonable

◦ Similar to a resume – use skills relevant to your industry and desired job

◦ Your connections are then invited to ‘Endorse’ you for the skills you have picked

◦ Your skills typically appear in order of most to least endorsed




Skills and Endorsements◦ Only endorse people for skills you actually know they

have It can be considered ‘bad form’ to endorse everyone for

everything, and also to ask for endorsement from people who have never worked with you professionally

Recommendations◦ Written testimonials from your connections◦ Hold a lot of weight◦ Write a few for contacts whose services you’ve used◦ Okay to ask for recommendations, but only do so from

people who you have actually worked with professionally


Job Suggestions◦ Based on your skills and work experience, LinkedIn

will recommend job opportunities currently available

◦ Employers pay to advertise positions

Recruiters and hiring managers also actively mine LinkedIn to hire candidates directly




The advertized job market◦ 20% of jobs, 80% of searchers

The hidden job market◦ 80% of jobs, 20% of searchers

Which one holds more chance for success?


How do you find the hidden jobs?◦ They don’t appear by magic

Help people help you find them◦ Personal Branding

◦ Networking

◦ Informational Interviews




Personal Branding◦ Help people have a clear understanding of who you

are

◦ Talk about your interests, professional ambitions, projects you are working on and courses you are taking

◦ By having a few ‘defining characteristics’, you will more likely be ‘top of mind’ when a friend or associate hears about an opportunity

◦ Better chance of finding a job that is a unique fit for your strengths and personality


Personal Branding◦ Example. You:

have a passion for training your own dogs

participate in dog-related activities with other people

constantly sharing fun facts and tips with your friends about dog behaviour

Regularly share videos of your dogs doing cool tricks

announce to the world online that you’ve just completed your certification in canine obedience training

Ask if anyone knows of any job opportunities for dog training in your area.




Personal Branding◦ Result?

Your friends and connections know you’re passionate about dogs

They’re confident you’ll be a great fit with any companies that focus on dog training

You’ll be top of mind if anyone hears of any employment opportunities related to dog training

You may receive leads for opportunities you hadn’t even considered yourself:

E.g. your cousin runs into an old friend and finds out he’s on the marketing team for Kong Dog Toys. She mentions you love dogs and are trying to change careers to fit your passion. He mentions that his team might be expanding, and ask for your contact info…


Networking◦ Asking for help is scary, but very effective

◦ Don’t be afraid to put it out in the world that you are looking for new opportunities in a certain type of work.

◦ Be positive and focus on the skills or characteristics of the work that you’re interested in rather than specific job titles - people may know of opportunities you haven’t considered but would enjoy.




Facebook is primarily ‘social’, so be conscious of that when communicating◦ Don’t flood your friends’ Facebook news feeds with

requests for job leads. They will get annoyed.

LinkedIn is focused on professional life, so it’s appropriate here to be more focused on asking for opportunity leads


LinkedIn “Advanced Search” Strategy◦ Can search by 1st and 2nd connections

◦ Locations

◦ Current company

◦ Industry

◦ Past company

Great way to find opportunities for an introduction to someone who is in the field you want to be in




LinkedIn Advanced Search Strategy◦ Don’t fill in any basic information

◦ In the advanced area, search for 2nd connections in the company or industry you want to get a job in

◦ Ask the connection you have in common if they’d be willing to make an introduction

◦ Meet that person, add them as a 1st connection

◦ Rinse and repeat


Instructor: Kevin Niemi...The tools and tips you need to start building a successful personal brand...

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