Five ways to find a job through social media

 
Have you ever wondered how to use Facebook or LinkedIn to find a job that suits you?  It’s easy, according to matchFWD.com CEO Phil Gauvin. This 34-year-old social media maven started his job-finding venture a year ago and is already landing work for Montrealers. How? By using professional information found on sites you check all the time.

Here are his top five ways to find work through social media.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  —Adam Bemma

1. Own your domain name.  If I look someone up online and they’ve taken the time to publish something on their own domain, even if it’s just a nice picture with a nice headline font telling what they are about and where I can find out more about them, they’re already 10 steps ahead.

2. Be where you need to be.  If you’re a developer, you need a GitHub account. Stack Overflow is good, too. If you’re a designer, you need to be on Dribbble.  If you’re in social media, marketing or PR, I hope have at least 500 followers on Twitter (and it’s easier than you think to tell if they’re real). If you blog, even rarely, you get points, too — if the content is good. Great communication skills have never been more important, and good online content is the easiest way to judge.

3. Milk your social network. Sure, you’ll see job postings in your Twitter feed. But there are ways to save yourself time and narrow your search. For instance, find developer jobs tweeted with JobsTractor, and find jobs tweeted by people you follow with Honeypot.

4. Network, network, network.  Go to events, meet people and pick up cards. If the connection was good, add them on LinkedIn with a nice intro message. Don’t ever use the default intro when connecting with new people.

5. Don’t fear the cold. Cold networking is easier than you think.  My favourite way of connecting with new people has always been by helping them first. If I find a typo or a bad link on their website, I send them a nice email about it. Those always get a reply. If I find content I think they’d like, I tweet them about it.