This article will discuss why do employers look at social media and how are they able to evaluate and identify potential employees via social media platforms.
When recruiting people for any position, most recruiters and hiring managers are looking at three things – academic background, personal experience, and work experiences.
So it is quite logical to believe that recruiters are equally interested in assessing the social media profile of candidates and all of them are more interested in understanding the social media footprint of their candidates.
Let’s assume that you have just finished an MBA program and have landed a well-paying job in one of the renowned companies.
All of the recruiters, whether from public sector, public/private sector, consultancy or private sector, will be looking at your LinkedIn profile to understand what your experience on the networking site is like.
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As a matter of fact, one of the top recruiters once told me that the candidate’s LinkedIn profile does not matter as long as the candidate has grown a network.
What matters most are the connections that they have and how many connections they have.
So, to understand how employers can look into the social media profile of potential employees, we have to understand the three things that you have on your LinkedIn profile
First, what you are connected to
A large number of people go out of their way to build connections on LinkedIn. But why would anyone go out of their way to make connections on a platform like LinkedIn?
This is something I have always wondered myself. If I see a girl, I will just go to her personal page, follow her, comment on her profile, and then get connected to her profile.
Why should I create a second LinkedIn profile and then try to connect to her?
Well, because if I don’t, how would I know if she is worth hiring?
So this is why when you click on the LinkedIn profile of a potential job seeker, you will be presented with his/her social media profiles.
Usually, recruiters have the means to view all the social media profiles of their prospective candidates.
A lot of people find it tough to understand what I am saying when I say this. What kind of social media profiles do employers look at?
I have heard some people use these words on many occasions but, let me share with you what I have observed about employers.
Many companies look at your professional network first
If you happen to belong to a top company or any of the top 100 companies in the country or in the world, then you would be one of the top prospects for any recruitment manager.
So the first thing that they will look into is your professional network. They will then look into the people you are connected to.
These people are the connections that you have.
They can then click on the profile of the people you have connections with, and then they will have an idea of the kind of person you are.
My last point to make is that all of this happens in a matter of seconds
All of this happens when you create a new LinkedIn profile and then make connections.
In fact, if you are able to create a high-quality LinkedIn profile, employers can even learn more about you.
For example, let’s take the example of Dr. Mufaddal Saif from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
He runs a huge social network. He can actually learn more about you from his LinkedIn profile than he can learn from his Twitter profile.
A lot of people don’t realize this and just look at their Twitter profile because they assume that it is better than LinkedIn, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.
LinkedIn is your personal media platform. Your LinkedIn profile is the digital resume of you.
When you look at it, you are able to set the expectations of who you are and what you can do, and, at the same time, it tells the employer that this person is the right fit for the company or job.
They can check your profile in seconds, unlike the time it takes to go to your Twitter profile.
Once the employer reads your profile, the opportunity is lost. If you look at the profiles of people who had applied for jobs in the past, they are always long and detailed.
But not yours. LinkedIn is fast and easy.
You can decide exactly what you want to put in there, and what you don’t want to put in there, and you can share it with your network.
That’s what I mean by having a personal media platform.
If you want your LinkedIn profile to stand out among the other people in the world, I recommend that you try the following:
Use lots of pictures. It helps a lot.
If you don’t have pictures, make sure that your LinkedIn profile shows you in action.
Get listed in a lot of professional publications that cover a particular industry. This will increase your visibility.
Write a thoughtful and insightful summary of what you can do for the company.
