With the advancements in technology and its proliferation across multiple platforms, the world truly seems to be at your fingertips. We live and work in an age that may best be described as instantaneous – instant downloads, instant payments, instant messaging, and instant news/sports updates are just some of the terminology and types of activities that have become commonplace in our society.
This is particularly applicable when it comes to instant communication, due to the advent of social media or social networking. These social websites and applications offer instant access to profiles/background information on an unlimited pool of prospective candidates for employers and potential clients for staffing agencies providing services. If you choose to post any type of information on social networking sites, such as:
you can be rest assured that any number of employers and job agencies are searching or researching these sites at any given time, and what you post may well attract them to your personal or professional profiles.
For the job seeker, it is therefore very important to know:
- How employers use social media
- How to position yourself for success using social media
- What to avoid when using social media, and
- The benefits of networking with a staffing agency
Each of these aspects will be outlined in more detail below.
How Employers Use Social Media
Companies are turning to social media as a means of disseminating career information and opportunities, attracting and recruiting prospective candidates, and/or screening the character of potential employees. Some of their more common uses of social media are:
- Creating Facebook pages that emphasize the company and its products/services
- Incorporating a company career site within Facebook that features job openings
- Streaming a news feed that shares items of interest/pertinence and job openings
- Publishing career information on the social media accounts of staffing agencies
- As an adjunctive or even primary recruiting tool (particular emphasis on LinkedIn)
- Reviewing posts/tweets/uploads to assess a candidate’s personality and behaviour
How To Position Yourself For Success Using Social Media
You can take ownership and responsibility for your future success through such steps as:
- Making sure that any and all information in your profile is accurate and verifiable
- Reviewing your profile on a regular basis and incorporate updates on a timely basis
- Building your network of contacts before you actually need to use that network
- Being consistent not sporadic – select and expand your base of contacts over time
- Joining applicable/appropriate groups on sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn
- Starting a discussion in these groups or be an active participant in such discussions
- Ensuring that your contributions to these discussions add value, and not just activity
- Offering recommendations and endorsements on behalf of your network contacts
What To Avoid When Using Social Media
It is important to remember that any and all information, comments, photos, etc. posted on the internet and/or on social media networks are accessible to a potentially worldwide audience and therefore open to review and interpretation by any employer or any job agency or staffing agency who may be scouring these sites for potential candidates. It is also important, therefore, to use discretion – and common sense – when posting any comments or materials, as follows:
- Avoid making derogatory comments about individuals, companies, industries, etc.
- Abstain from posting any photos, jokes, etc. that may be discriminatory to others
- Think twice – will any activity have the potential to be embarrassing at a later date?
- Refrain from making reactive/spur-of-the-moment comments – while it may feel good to act impulsively, you may come to regret it later on
The Benefits Of Networking With A Staffing Agency
Networking with a staffing agency or job agency can provide a number of significant benefits in relation to your job search, especially if you are looking for work in Toronto:
- You have access to a broader network of potential employers
- You have access to job openings that may not be posted publicly
- These agencies have established working relationships with many employers
- These agencies have a reputation of filling vacancies quickly and efficiently
- Staffing agencies are knowledgeable in terms of market/industry trends
As a respected job agency, Winters Technical Staffing has been successful in helping job seekers network with a multitude of companies in Toronto for more than 40 years.
Are you interested in growing your professional network to gain more job opportunities? If you need a job agency in Toronto to help you with your job search, call Winters Technical Staffing today at 1-877-495-7422 to talk about your needs and interests.
