CAN SOCIAL MEDIA FIND YOU YOUR NEXT JOB?

Most people use Facebook or Twitter to keep in touch with friends, but these social media platforms along with LinkedIn, can be used for networking and finding jobs. An online article was posted on LinkedIn recently that gave tips on how to use LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter in your career search.

The Hofstra campus community had a chance to get more in-depth information on how to effectively use LinkedIn from the source itself. On March 15^th, employees from LinkedIn presented a workshop about LinkedIn tips. One of the noticeable topics they touched on was how to build a network on LinkedIn.

Building a professional network is a great way to find out about job opportunities and even get recommended for a job yourself. I tell students all the time that they should have a LinkedIn profile and connect with people in the industry of interest. The LinkedIn workshop explained how this could be done. Here are two ways mentioned in the workshop:

How can you search for people to network with?

If you go to linkedin.com/alumni (while signed in to your LinkedIn), you will see a breakdown of where the Hofstra alumni on LinkedIn live, where they work, and what industries they are in. With this information, you can narrow down a possible person on LinkedIn to network with based on where they work and what they do.

If you click on ‘More’ in the top toolbar and then ‘Skills & Expertise’, you can find people in LinkedIn that share a skill you enter in the search bar.

Whenever you go on someone’s profile, on the right side it shows who are in both of your networks. It’s basically like 6 degrees of separation and you’re Kevin Bacon.

You found someone to connect with on LinkedIn, now what?

When you are connecting with someone on LinkedIn, you have the option of personalizing the message that will be sent with that request. Take that option every time. This does 3 things amongst many others:

• Shows your friendly side
• Gives you a chance to mention something from the conversation you had with this person (if you have met in person prior) – so the person remembers youIncreases your chances of the person accepting your request if the person does not know you.
• You should always mention why you want to connect, and try to find a similarity you have with that person or express your interest in the company the person works at.

For example, if you are trying to contact with a Hofstra alum, say you are a current student at Hofstra.

If you need more personalized help on how to network on LinkedIn, please make an appointment to see a career counselor at The Career Center. We are here to help.

Nayelli Perez, Assistant Director