Massive Monday – How to Use Social Media to Land Your Dream Job

Jessica Zoo
Jan 6, 2014
6 min read

This morning the majority of the world is heading back to work for the first time after their long Christmas break. We all took part in numerous festivities, way too much fattening food was eaten and far too many drinks were consumed. On the first day of the New Year, resolutions were made: “I want to get fit again” , “ I want to add meaning to my life”. Then there is the most common one of all: “I WANT A NEW JOB AND TO MAKE SOMETHING OF MYSELF”.

Today is Monday the 6th of January 2014, also known as Massive Monday because it is the be the busiest day in terms of recruitment according to the London Metro. James Reed, chairman of the Reed recruitment group, told the Sunday Times that the first Monday back at work after New Year they get more traffic to their website than any other day of year. When people have time to reflect on things over the Christmas break they are more likely to mull over feeling of job dissatisfaction. It is not surprising that more than one in four of us will switch careers in a lifetime.

Nowadays we have a bigger advantage when it comes to chasing our dream job. With the power of the internet, and more recently Social Media at our finger tips, finding a targeted solution becomes far simpler. The question is: are you able to make it work to your best advantage?

These days, employers will run all sorts of background checks on potential employees, and it is very unlikely that you will ever find out about this. It's the same thing if you were to be set up as a blind date:

The first thing you do is some Facebook background checks, because inevitably you want to take a sneak peak of what this person is really like. Their dating site profile may be selective and biaised just like your LinkedIn profile. Facebook reveals a lot of private information about us: we can use this as a tool or a disadvantage. Most of us tend to ignore this aspect of our digital footprint.

Your Facebook profile is your magazine cover to the world. Ideally, it is what you would like the world to see about you. For example if your profile reflects the image of a person that is fun, sociable and people like to interact with you, it probably means you will be good at sales, networking or any job that requires human interaction. Do you see where we are going with this? You can tailor your profile to project you in the best light that suits your career aims.

Below are our top 5 tips to boost your Facebook profile to improve your employability:

Clean up your Facebook page to suit the image you are looking to project.
Alter your security settings so only the closest of your friends can see the pictures of you doing beer bongs in Vegas. Feel free to leave nice, sensible pictures of holidays and nights out. Having a social life is a good sign - as long as you show your best side.
When it comes to the about section on your Facebook make sure you have your education box at the top.
Add a non-blurry profile picture which reflects you in the best light possible: educated, sociable, passionate and focused, with lots of personality.
Avoid putting negative or political status updates on your Facebook. We're not not saying you can’t speak your mind on your own Facebook wall, but the truth is that no-one wants to hear negativity in the first place, and people tend to avoid the updates of our friends complaining about life. Positivity attracts positivity. Employers will love it, and so will your friends.
Post and talk about others people on it. Promote your friends and like their pictures and status updates. Magically this will be returned to you and your profile will stand out with lots of your friends engaging with you. As a result, the next time you put up a post requesting help - you are much more likely to get responses.
Lastly if you are heading towards a new career, you can tweak your Facebook profile to match the industry more by liking pages, joining groups and following well-known professionals in that field. Make sure you don’t forget to remove any conflicting pages and groups. For example if your dream career in fitness, remove all the pictures with you smoking or guzzling MacDonald’s. You and your dream job are collaborating brands: they need to be cohesive with one another.

Now let’s talk about LinkedIn. In terms of recruitment ad job-finding, there has never been an easier tool for self-promotion and best of all its free for the most part (the premium version is also not too dear). Not only you have your CV on your profile but you can add skills and get them endorsed by your connections, giving you credibility for the skills you have.

Once you’ve added your CV and your work experience you can get also endorsed by pervious employers. BINGO: instant reference. Another thing that you can do is search companies you may be interested in working for or just connect with senior members and recruiters of prospective future employers. Here are some tips on how to beef up your LinkedIn profile:

Make sure your profile is complete and up to date, with details of your current responsibilities.
Move around the sections of your LinkedIn profile so that the most impressive parts are at the top. For example if your skills or languages are more impressive than your recommendations or education, move those to the top and the least impressive to the bottom.
Import all of your contacts to Hotmail (or equivalent) and then import all your contacts to LinkedIn. This will increase the number of connections drastically and improve your chances of being connected to your dream job.
Move your skills to the top just under your profile and include skills not only related to your department, but also to your industry (ie not just Sales, but also the industries you've worked in such as E-commerce, design, marketing, luxury, etc..)
Add a professional profile picture which makes you come across as approachable and trustworthy
Endorse skills of your friends, clients, and colleagues on a regular basis
Always use a professional and respectful tone and share links to interesting articles about your industry.

After looking at the more 'academic' aspect of using Social Media for your job-hunting purposes, we want to share with you the magic of Twitter. Imagine you at an open house party where everyone who’s attractive is available to chat, but if they are not keen you can easily say “No thanks” without any weird awkwardness. With Twitter it's the same: the main point is that everyone is accessible - but just like the party analogy if you go straight in for the kill, you are most likely turned away. You need to put some time to know the person first. Before you talk business, you can chat about anything else (something they tweeted about, sharing a link that you enjoyed, etc..) We are all human, and there is nothing worse than an aggressive “I don’t know you but I'm going to pitch at you straight away / request a job”.

Twitter allows you to get in touch with the unreachable bunch and have a bit of banter with no pressure of discussing business. In terms of your profile, like Facebook it may be fun, but it’s still your personal magazine cover – use it that way.

One very important tip with Twitter is to mainly do a lot of "listening" instead of talking. This means before tweeting, look at what others are talking about and interact with them first. You can always use #Hashtags in your field of interest at the end of your tweets so people can find you easily. An example of a Tweet aimed at becoming an employee here at Social Media Mentors could be: "Hi @ukbesocial, loved the #blog. Are you hiring? #digitalmarketing #london #MassiveMonday #jobs"

Nowadays, it becomes very easy to apply for jobs with just1 click. So what are you waiting for? Beef up your LinkedIn account, upload your CV, clean up your Facebook profile and starting connecting with decision-makers. That dream job is just around the corner and there is no better to start than Massive Monday.

Happy #MassiveMonday Everyone.

By Lars Christensen Co – Founder of Social Media Mentors Ltd