Employers Prefer LinkedIn

A survey by Jump Start Social Media has found that employers prefer to use LinkedIn over Facebook and Twitter in the hiring process.

Jump Start Social Media carried out a poll of 100 hiring managers at small, mid-sized and large companies, on how social media is being used in the hiring process. It found that while 75 percent of hiring managers check LinkedIn to research the credentials of job candidates, only 48 percent use Facebook, and just 26 percent use Twitter to research candidates before making a job offer.

“Social media is not only a great networking tool, it’s also a way for employers to perform reference checks on job candidates,” said Veronica Fielding, president of Digital Brand Expressions and its social media service for consumers, Jump Start Social Media. “Because LinkedIn is the most professionally oriented of the three, it tends to attract hiring managers who are doing due diligence.”

When it comes to sourcing job candidates, more hiring managers again prefer LinkedIn to Twitter and Facebook. Of the hiring managers surveyed, 66 percent of hiring managers visit LinkedIn, 23 percent visit Facebook and 16 percent use Twitter to find job candidates to fill openings.

“While social media sites are ideal ways of gaining more information on job candidates, hiring managers generally use job boards and more traditional methods of finding suitable resumes,” says Veronica Fielding. “Whether or not you are job hunting, you should be aware that your public profile is easily accessible so be sure to maintain a professional personal brand.”

Jump Start Social Media offers these tips for using social media in the job-hunting process:

• Become familiar with the popular social media sites so you can participate in important dialogues, including opportunities to network for jobs.
• Start with one service, get comfortable with it, and branch out from there. The easiest, safest choice is LinkedIn because it has always been 100% business focused.
• Share links to interesting news stories combined with a sentence of insight, and join groups (your alma mater, former employers, industry associations, etc.) in order to participate in online discussions with the other members.
• Ask people in your network to introduce you to the people that they know. It’s these dynamic group interactions that help shape perceptions of you and your business acumen.
• Make sure to finish your social media profiles and keep them updated.
• If you are “tweeting” on Twitter, share links to stories, reports, interviews, etc. to which you add your insights.
• Don’t overlook Facebook’s value as a way of keeping in touch and staying top of mind with the business connections you’ve made during your career.

Jump Start Social Media is a service of Digital Brand Expressions that helps professionals accelerate their adoption of social media for personal brand management.

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