Once you are open to exploring new job opportunities then it is a good idea to look into your social media presence for job hunting. It is important to keep the social and professional life separate. The professional profile is a way to validate and attract attention to your achievement. Now day’s recruiters and hiring managers are looking at social sites to validate the candidate’s experience and personal traits.

Social media for job search

The objective of creating a separate social media profile for job hunting is to use the profile to showcase your resume. Your social media profile for networking is to establish professional connections. You can have your colleagues, managers, and ex-employers on the connection. They can follow your activities, The feedback stream on their feeder may show your networking activities. You may want to keep your job hunting activities confidential. A separate profile for job searches can hide your job hunting activities from your professional network connection.

Keep updating your new social media profile every few days. This will keep your profile fresh and most up to date with important keywords. The updated profile with relevant keywords will also help the search engine algorithms to rank higher on search results.  The social profile is a living document and you can add and delete the information as you think suitable.

You have to look at your social profile activities. Delete or clean activities that you do not want your prospective employer or recruiters to see. Revisit the privacy setting of your social profiles to manage activities feeds visible to your network. Your professional networking profile is for long term relationships. Your profile for job hunting is for short term transactional relationships and both need to solve their purpose.

Things to mention on professional networking site

Create a LinkedIn / Facebook/ any other social profile which might attract the attention of executives or HR.  You can create a new social profile for job hunting purposes only. Add all your significant achievements on the profile with all the experience in descending order (recent experience first). Add all your relevant education, certifications, and credentials on the social site.

Please take a nice photo for your social profile. Depending upon your profession and the image that you want to portray, have a professional-looking photo on your profile.

Next important is the tag line. How do you want to describe your profile in one line? The write up should be the best way to inform others about your profession and value addition. Your social profiles will be more authentic if your supervisors and colleagues make some positive comments on your professional achievements. Rest just copy and paste your resume write up to the social profile.

You may come across a few important keywords which are in demand and you can use those keywords and responsibilities to enhance your profile’s attractiveness.