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The most recent statistics are staggering.  92 percent of businesses use social media to help find prospective employees.  70 percent check social media profiles at some point during the hiring process.*  If you’re serious about your career, you need to be on LinkedIn and Facebook at least; and most likely Twitter too.  What’s more, you need your presence there to be professional and serious.   Because, the truth is, employers will use the internet as an inexpensive tool to research their hires.  Another study found that 58 percent of business hired through social networks.*  Astounding.

Your potential employer will use social media.  You can use it too: to stand out from the crowd.  First, recognize it’s a serious platform.  The social media is a good place to exchange family photos and to comment on what’s going on in your life.  But, you need to recognize it’s a public place (mostly) and prospective employers can find what’s written there.  Do not use your LinkedIn or Facebook accounts as a platform to vent.  LinkedIN should be your primary networking device.  It’s recognized as a solid and serious place.  And, use your profile to market yourself.   You are product like any other, and you must market if you are to be effective in the modern career world.  Use a professional looking head shot photo. Studies show a profile with a photo is much more likely to be looked at and taken seriously than one that does not have a picture.

Have a solid headline that describes your career goal or current business.  Have a bullet point resume that is uncluttered and makes good use of white space.  Focus on accomplishments, rather than on day to day duties.  Make sure your profile is 100 percent complete.

Older job seekers, even those who have long service in their chosen profession, might pay special attention to their social media presence.   Doing it, and doing right, let’s a prospective employer know you are not mired in past practices; that you are willing to change and embrace new, innovative techniques.  What’s more, it can connect you with dozens of movers and shakers in your field; creating the kind of network that helps you to get things done and move forward in your field.

Only 13 percent of job seekers in 2010 found a placement via job boards.   That’s pitiful, especially since surveys show it’s the place where job seekers spend, by far, the majority of their time.  Employers, increasingly, are shying away from boards.  They are expensive.  What’s more, since every job they post there brings hundreds, or thousands, of responses—most of them unqualified—it’s inefficient as well.

Social Media is the future of brand control and marketing.  It’s the future of marketing products.  It’s the future of marketing YOU.  Don’t spend your life on LinkedIN or Facebook.  Do make sure it’s part of your daily routine.

*Jobvite.com Social Recruiting Survey 2010

*Career XRoads.com Sources of Hire Survey 2010

photo credit: Sammy and the Light

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