Social Media, Blogging, and Your Job Search

Social Media, Blogging, and Online Communities in the Job Search

With the lightning pace of technology development today, a rapidly growing number of individuals have incorporated online resources in their job search and career management activities. At the forefront of this trend, you will find communities on sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Blogging has also grown significantly in popularity over the past few years. Among other advantages, it offers you the ability to link to and share information easily with the online communities you participate in.

Why are these tools important?

If you're not currently using any of these tools in your job search or career planning, you might want to "get on the train" before it leaves you behind. Like it or not, this is becoming an apparently unstoppable job search trend. Smart career planning and management takes it into consideration.

Why can't you afford to ignore the trend if you're uncomfortable with it? For one thing, because recruiters are increasingly turning to sites such as Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to research candidates before calling them. If you're not present there—or worse, have a negative online presence—it could cost you desirable job opportunities.

Get Started with Social Media in Your Job Search

You can start slowly and begin using one social media tool at a time—say, LinkedIn—and gradually add one or two more--Facebook and then Twitter, for example. On the other hand, if you're feeling brave, you can choose to launch into all three at once. However, you will probably discover that each one has its own learning curve, so you might actually progress more effectively in the long run by engaging in social media in stages.