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Social media will find you the perfect job? No - but it can help.

Recruitment expert Richard Eardley gives his tips on how to think of yourself of a brand – and how to manage it.

SOCIAL MEDIA: THE answer to finding you that perfect job, right? Let’s face it, if nothing else is working, it must be because everything has moved on – you’re behind the times. If you can find out a few tips on how to use social media then you’re sure to be writing that resignation letter very soon. Right?

Wrong! It’s kinda like saying if you buy a Formula One racing car, you’ll be heading for the Monaco Grand Prix soon.

Firstly let’s look at what social media is. The term has been around for a few years now but it still has an enigmatic allure that’s allowing a lot of people to make money out of proclaiming they’ll help you ‘harness social media’. Some would say social media began with the first electronic mail – email – back in 1971. However, the true sense of the term evolved from the development of the world wide web (remember that term?) into web 2.0. What that means is that we went from being passive users of the web – reading content from people who had the skills to create websites – to being content editors ourselves. This was a real game changer as it started to put the power of mass communication into the hands of the common people or from a business’ perspective, the consumer.

Web 2.0 and the advancements since, have allowed developers to do lots of cool things to aid our experience on the internet. However it’s the creation of blogs, wikis, social networking and video sharing sites, which have given the power to the people. But hang on, all we’re trying to do is find a job, not become the online Citizen Kane! So where does that fit in? Well, you’re not just communicating directly with one particular employer anymore, you’re putting yourself in the web window for potentially thousands of employers. You are creating a brand for yourself, that hopefully someone will pick up. The truth is, you’ve always been a ‘brand’ to a certain extent, as has your mother and your grandfather, but social media is allowing you to broadcast your brand to millions.

So where do we get started? There are blogs, wikis, social networking and video sharing sites but should you use Blogger or Wordpress, Flickr or Zoomr, Youtube or Blip.tv, Twitter or LinkedIn? The fact is there are thousands of the sites to choose from, so what should be the first one? Well the most popular site on the internet is Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg, the creator and Chief Executive recently gave a presentation which showed 1 billion people using Facebook at the same time. However, is Facebook the best place to show you’re the right person for that dream job?

If you’ve pictures of last weekend’s stag/hen party on your page and proclamations about living to party it might not be the best place to present yourself to prospective employers. This is why you must start thinking of yourself as a brand. If you think about it, most products/services/companies probably contain elements about their business that they don’t want the whole world to know about. They portray themselves in a way that make them desirable to their customers and broadcast their brand as effectively as possible. You’re no different. So here’s a few marketing tips for your brand i.e. how to help get that new job.

What is the message you want your brand to portray? Mercedes is stylish, Black and Decker is powerful, Apple is Cool. What about you? Are you someone who will bring lots of creativity to a company? Or maybe you’ll lead a team to amazing results. What is your experience and qualifications? Basically, review your work and academic history, (your CV is probably the best place if you have one) pick out what skills you have that will benefit your next employer. “I’m a natural sales person who has surpassed their targets by 20% for the past three quarters. So I’ve no doubt I will make you a considerable profit.” Think about what keywords you could highlight in a cloud or networking site CV. Can you use blogs or video to demonstrate your knowledge or images to show your creative skills or portfolio?

Know your audience and use the most effective means to communicate with them. You won’t see adverts for De Beers diamonds in the Sun newspaper and you won’t see Jean’s Hairdressers in Athlone being promoted on TV at the end of Coronation Street. It’s horses for courses. LinkedIn is now the established place for business networking and recruitment. In fact 41% of LinkedIn’s revenue comes from recruitment. My wife alone has had six unsolicited job offers in the past year.

You could say it’s an online version of your CV with the opportunity to add videos and presentations, links to blogs and other sites that promote who you are and what you can do. It actually helps you to promote the keywords in your CV by allowing you to highlight skills that you have. However, the key attraction of LinkedIn is the premise of the site, to allow you to network with people who might either hire you, or help you get a job. You can do this by searching out particular people on the site and asking them to link in with you, or you can join groups.

Joining groups on LinkedIn is a great way for you to network, get to know people and also show your expertise on a particular subject matter. You’ll most likely find groups that relate specifically to your line of work or areas of interest. Be vocal in these groups as it is the best way to get you noticed. LinkedIn has become so established that it’s beneficial for most professions, although some occupations are more prevalent than others.

In addition, other social media sites can be useful dependent on your profession. For example, people in the IT industry are more frequent users of Twitter. Equally, Flickr and Youtube would be popular for creatives or media types. Blog sites used to be the environment of media wannabees, but more and more people from all backgrounds are using them. If you’re an environmental scientist you might have a few things you want to say through a blog or even as a plasterer you might want to write or demo some tips on how to do the basic elements of your job. Just think of your audience, where you will reach the most of them and how you can get across your message as simply as possible.

Manage your brand. So you have your message and you know where to broadcast it. However if you are wanting to promote your business profile to the world you have to make sure nothing is publicly revealed that might damage that. You might keep your Facebook profile free of controversial messages or pictures, but that doesn’t stop your friends trying to make fun of you by tagging you on a silly picture from Saturday night. So get to know your privacy settings on all the social media you use and manage them properly.

But these tips aren’t exclusive to social media, they relate to all aspects of finding a job. Working out your message could relate to your cover letter or cover note on a job board. Knowing your audience could mean finding the right person in the company to which to address your speculative application. The most effective means of communication means finding the jobs you really want and applying for them as opposed to spraying around generic applications to jobs you might not even be interested in. That will never work. If you follow the rule of sending the right message, through the most appropriate means of communication, to the right person, you won’t go wrong.

And managing the brand? Well you’re not going to make a call to a recruitment agency or a prospective agency from the pub are you? Would you turn up for an interview in a pair of jeans and t-shirt? Your physical profile, what you say or what you do, is just as important as any online one.

Ultimately, social media, or particular forms of social media are just other tools for communicating who you are and what you want. How much you use those tools depends on your profession – a marketing professional should be using social media a lot more than say an insurance broker or a bricklayer. In prehistoric times we had no choice but to walk to get from A to B, however long that might have taken. Then came the horse, the bicycle, the car and the plane, all revolutionising the way we transported ourselves. Have we stopped walking or pedalling?

However, it’s not just about having the tools, it’s how you use them. In the last year a very savvy out-of-work ex-pat marketing executive got himself a job with Paddy Power through a much publicised campaign. He used a wide range of tools including very clever use of social media. But it was his creativity, his content and his delivery that got him the job, as much as the media he used to broadcast it.

So if you have aspirations of popping champagne corks on the podium at Monaco, best get yourself down to the local karting track and start with the basics.

Richard Eardley is managing director of Hays, the professional recruitment experts.

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9 Comments
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    Mute ÉiRed
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    Jul 31st 2014, 3:22 PM

    I have worked in retail for over 15 years. I loved dealing with people,helping customers with their queries and feeling like I made a difference. Then,you know what happened? People happened. Grumpy SOB’s that come into the shop at 7.30 in the morning,throwing coins at me for a paper without so much as a hello, people complaining that the coffee machine is on a cleaning cycle and walking off in a huff or when you don’t activate petrol pumps within 2 seconds,you get an earful.. People completely ruined my love for retail so….rant over

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    Mute family guy
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    Jul 31st 2014, 3:25 PM

    What’s the difference between people now and 15 years ago?

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    Mute ÉiRed
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    Jul 31st 2014, 3:31 PM

    Experience and 15 years full of taking cr@p from people. Most retail staff can be unprofessional as well,I understand that but I’ve put up with and seen a fair amount of abuse from people over the years and it’s made me want to just get out of it altogether. A nice office somewhere away from people

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    Mute family guy
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    Jul 31st 2014, 3:55 PM

    But you just said in your first comment you loved dealing with people and then you contradicted yourself that you hate dealing with people?

    You get ass###es in all walks of life and in every job. It’s just the way the world is. I have learnt over the years to take these people in my stride and realise it’s not my fault they’re unpleasant. If you stand up to them they usually back down quite quickly. They usually pray on the weak.

    I realise giving lip to unpleasant people isn’t easy when your in customer services but you can make life more difficult for them. Get some pleasure from that.

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    Mute Inntalitarian
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    Jul 31st 2014, 4:28 PM

    Your mistake was staying in retail for 15 years.

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    Mute Katie Collins
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    Jul 31st 2014, 4:31 PM

    I used to like people before I worked in retail, four years of idiocy and snide remarks when you’re trying to do your utmost best for them takes its toll..

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    Mute ÉiRed
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    Jul 31st 2014, 6:39 PM

    Yes I LOVED dealing with people when I first started out but people’s attitude changed my opinion on the job. I don’t hate dealing with people at work but they don’t make the job any easier. Most customers are lovely but you will ALWAYS get at least 3 in any shift that will cause a problem when there is none there. Asking a customer if they have any fuel outside can be a nightmare. IT IS MY JOB TO ASK THIS!! Yet when I ask some people,it’s like I’ve committed the worst atrocity towards them

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    Mute Life in no motion
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    Jul 31st 2014, 7:56 PM

    They’re 15 years older

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    Mute family guy
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    Jul 31st 2014, 8:03 PM

    How do people get offended when asked ‘did you get fuel’ is beyond me?. There is a few people round here like that. The whole community think they’re ass###es so be safe in the knowledge that most people think the same.

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    Mute Super Ted
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    Jul 31st 2014, 8:46 PM

    One of the bullet points says, “Only 27% of shoppers found their main supermarket to be fun and exciting.”

    Whenever I have roller-skated through the Tesco aisles, expertly lobbing everything I need into a basket as I go and usually without dropping anything, I was always stopped by security and abruptly asked to leave :/

    Shopping isn’t exciting for me anymore, I am one of the disgruntled 27%. Sort it out Tesco!

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    Mute Joe Andrews
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    Jul 31st 2014, 4:32 PM

    In retail, the public think they have a right to walk in and completely ruin anything you have, whether it be a display, cleanliness or dignity. They will shout and ball at you for the littlest things imaginable. Families with kids are the worst horror of all, spoiling peoples day with their disregard of other people, so they don’t have to look after the kids. The elderly are split into 2 groups, really nice and pleasant or real S.O.B.’s
    I still get amazed how people walk into penny’s and destroy the stores on a daily basis.
    Retail workers are usually on minimum wage and deserve a medal for what they have to put up with!

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    Mute onlybuzzinwitcha
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    Jul 31st 2014, 4:40 PM

    You sir, I salute you. Do you work or have you worked in retail? Because you know what you’re on about. If you haven’t, I’m amazed at your consideration – something that the majority of the non retail experienced public seem to lack.

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    Mute Katie Collins
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    Jul 31st 2014, 7:01 PM

    He’s dead right, parents that don’t keep control of their kids while enquiring about a product and the children wreck the shop then you spend an hour fixing for it only for it to happen again and again and again…
    Once this little brat walked around the whole perimeter of the store, held his arm out to his level and knocked over EVERYTHING at arms level. Needless to say i was fit to kill the mother…

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    Mute Katie Collins
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    Jul 31st 2014, 7:01 PM

    He’s dead right, parents that don’t keep control of their kids while enquiring about a product and the children wreck the shop then you spend an hour fixing for it only for it to happen again and again and again…
    Once this little brat walked around the whole perimeter of the store, held his arm out to his level and knocked over EVERYTHING at arms level. Needless to say i was fit to kill the mother…

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    Mute Darren kerrigan
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    Jul 31st 2014, 3:16 PM

    Sell blue moulded chocolate eclairs,that’s how Tescos got me to go back to them yesterday

    57
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    Mute Henry Sellars
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    Jul 31st 2014, 3:28 PM

    I can’t understand then, how lidl and aldi have taken the Irish and British markets by storm, since their interiors look like a warehouse. Does not compute….

    54
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    Mute Dennis Collins
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    Jul 31st 2014, 3:43 PM

    Both Aldi and Lidl are bright and airy – Aldi more so, in my opinion. Walk in the door, you can see from one side of the shop to the other. No clutter. Flow around nicely with your trolley. It’s always clean. Get to the checkout and be dealt with quicker than in any of the other supermarkets. They pay their staff a considerable amount more than any other chain and it pays off.

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    Mute Paddy Hannigan
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    Jul 31st 2014, 3:51 PM

    And you can walk into any Aldi in Ireland and find exactly what you went in for in 10 seconds unlike the big names where your a half an hour trying to find a bag of sugar.Aldi may not be fancy but they are functional and cheap.

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    Mute Inntalitarian
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    Jul 31st 2014, 4:29 PM

    That’s bollox about the queues. You often spend 20 minutes queuing in the German shops.

    47
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    Mute onlybuzzinwitcha
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    Jul 31st 2014, 4:33 PM

    I’m always amazed at the speed of the person on check out in Lidl /Aldi. It’s so fast. They also say hi to you maybe have a very brief chat. Then I go to Tesco. About 99% of the times I’ve been in there there’s always a grumpy sod on checkout that sighs before beginning to checkout your goods. Never smiles at you but if one of their colleagues comes over it’s all shits and giggles. The 1% is usually a new person or a needle in a haystack.

    57
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    Mute Neal Ireland Hello
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    Jul 31st 2014, 7:06 PM

    That’s because they’re terrified they’ll lose their jobs if they fail to smile the requisite 4.5 inches and scan one item every 2.7 micro-seconds. At least Tesco lets them have an off-day.

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    Mute Sarah Sue
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    Jul 31st 2014, 4:36 PM

    Has anyone found that you’re almost taken aback when you get a friendly checkout operator in these stores? And that when you do come across one they are almost always foreign?? Its almost funny how downright rude some of the miserable Irish biddies (they are ALWAYS girls/women) are, say hello and they point blank ignore you, through change at you like you have leporasy and ignored again when you say “thank you”. Or leave you standing there while they b*tch & moan to a colleague for 5 mins. Dunnes Stores staff are the worst!!

    52
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    Mute Ahippo
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    Jul 31st 2014, 5:13 PM

    Not exactly retail but I went into burgerking on Grafton street yesterday and encountered two surly slow Irish people employed there. Long queue. Gave up went next door to the much busier but queueless McDonald’s and got served instantly with a smile by a charming Polish person.

    25
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    Mute Ann-Marie Wallis
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    Jul 31st 2014, 4:36 PM

    Can’t beat a shop with a clear, attractive layout. I honestly think this is a huge part of where Tesco fell down in recent years; shops with little order, dirty and unkept shelves etc. Good visual displays, friendly staff and organisation across the shop floor…that’s what retailers need to focus on.

    I recently came across a small clothes shop in Charleville, Co. Cork. Contrary to popular belief that these shops are dying out, the shop was doing roaring trade. Why? The lady that owned the shop was passionate about clothes and buys a very wide range of styles that are appealing to young and old. She also used vintage couches and chairs to add to the boutique vibe she wanted to create. And she utilised social media very well, using case studies of ladies who came to her looking for a dress for a wedding or special occasion, along with competitions etc (she has over 27k FB fans…not bad going).

    If small retailers want to survive, they have to interact as much as they can with the customer and not underestimate the importance of visual impact and genuine enthusiasm for their products.

    42
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    Mute Sinead Clinton
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    Jul 31st 2014, 6:59 PM

    What is the name of the shop?

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    Mute Ann-Marie Wallis
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    Aug 1st 2014, 5:12 AM

    Cherish, on the Cork side as you’re coming into town…well worth a look.

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    Mute Caroline aMarie
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    Aug 1st 2014, 4:24 PM

    The rudeness of staff in most shops here in the town where I live is a disgrace.And in a restaurant you cannot complain if there is an issue with your food.Oh no.People accept every shyte .The customer is not king in Ireland.

    1
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    Mute Caroline aMarie
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    Jul 31st 2014, 11:37 PM

    The customer should be king.In shops.In pubs.In restaurants.Just like in America. Unfortunately the customer is far from being king here.The shopkeeper rules the waves.And since nobody complains..

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    Mute Tommy Crotty
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    Jul 31st 2014, 11:33 PM

    Never ever go to the male checkout staff, slow as snails. Proof that women are multi-taskers and we men are not!

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