Marketing Yourself in the Social and Digital World

Overview

Overview of Social Media Today

Building Your Online Brand

Connecting with Target Companies

Q&A

Social Networks Based on Share of Time Spent

Focus on Goals: Quality Connections? Engagement?

Social Considerations

- Even if you don’t supply a recruiter with your social network profiles, 73% will check them out anyway.

- Use this to your advantage.

- It’s important to have profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. If not, you won’t seem as relevant and companies might think that you’re hiding something.

- Companies are inspecting social profiles to weed out candidates and to get a sense of whether a particular applicant is likely to fit into the culture or not.

Social Considerations

Four out of five recruiters liked to see memberships and affiliations with professional organizations on a candidate’s profile, and most react positively when volunteerism efforts are mentioned.

Poor grammar and spelling mistakes are worse than writing about your latest binge-drinking adventure: 54% of recruiters had a negative reaction to grammar and spelling mistakes, compared to 47% of recruiters negative reaction to alcohol references.

Employer Perspective

- Consider the employer perspective and use to your advantage:

- They want to leverage social to build their brand.

- They want to improve candidate experience and hiring ratios via social tools.

Who is your target? HR? CEO?

1. How does your audience receive information?

2. What’s in their ‘bubble’? 3. Are you reaching them

through methods they prefer?

Choose Your Social Platform(s)

Approach

Facebook LinkedIn

Be transparent and assume potential employers have seen your entire news feed.

Consider this your ‘culture fit’ test.

Show your professional self with your resume, picture and affiliations.

Directly engage with companies of interest.

Approach

Twitter Google+

Start small and follow a few select individuals.

Re-share and directly engage with influencers and target companies.

Explore communities in your industry.

Follow people and companies of interest.

Tips for Social Communication

Etiquette / Professionalism

Adapt to the social environment.

On LinkedIn its important to be very professional. LI is for professional networking and job search, so stay in a professional mindset at all times. This includes your profile image (no selfies please), your resume content and shared posts.

Share articles of interest that are within your area of focus. Stay away from divisive subjects.

Create Relevant & Targeted Profiles

- Build compelling, professional profiles. LinkedIn is an obvious place, but Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ are also sites where you can include this kind of information. These profiles should demonstrate what you've accomplished, where your strengths are and what you can offer future employers.

- Enhance your profile and utilize key words related to jobs and business you’d like to be considered for. On LinkedIn frequency and specificity can be huge. If you are looking for a position as an HR Manager, make sure that you utilize that phrase throughout your online resume.

Follow-up & Connect

After any networking event, timing is critical. You should connect with all of the contacts that you received business cards from via LinkedIn, preferably within 1-3 days. Thank them for the meeting and as relevant set up additional coffees and introductions. Besides enhancing you own ‘Rolodex’ of professional contacts, you may also find that someone you connect with may bring you one level closer to a contact you’d like to meet now or down the road.

Find Influencers

Find a few groups on LinkedIn and Influencers on Twitter that are of interest for your industry and your aspirations - join them and engage. Look for groups that have a few active people and aren’t overrun with sales chatter.

Establishing yourself as part of the right community can open new doors and connections. You also might get first-hand knowledge of a company culture and job openings from connections within the groups.

Directly Follow Companies of Interest

Directly follow companies of interest on LinkedIn and Twitter so you're automatically notified about new hires, product developments, and other news. “Like” companies you’re interested in and join the conversation about industry trends on Facebook. This is a great way to demonstrate your expertise and value to a potential employer.

When looking into a company, always check them out on LinkedIn. You will find tons of data and also identify which members of your own network work there, or are connected to someone who does.

Become an Influencer

- Help out others by answering questions, sharing knowledge, and linking to quality content. If you regularly provide links to great content and share thoughts on LinkedIn and Twitter, you are building social capital.

Connect with Social Job Feeds

Most people know about career sites and job aggregators. Improve the odds in your favor by looking for jobs on company Twitter feeds, on their Facebook pages, and in LinkedIn Company pages.

1. What’s your strategy? How will you get your information in front of your ideal target?

2. Embrace at least two social platforms (LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest).

3. Identify your fears and what’s stopping you from creating a more solid online brand.

4. Do you know your personal brand and what you ‘bring to the table’?

5. Consider writing and sharing original content via a blog.

What’s Your Next Step?

Contact

Kristina Witmer

Managing Director

kristina@witmergroup.com

Emily Mantooth

Account Manager

emily@witmergroup.com

LinkedIn.com/company/witmer-group

Twitter.com/witmergroup