Why No Social Media Presence Is Bad for Job Seekers

Why No Social Media Presence Is Bad for Job SeekersWhy No Social Media Presence Is Bad for Job SeekersUp until now, your social media experience has consisted mostly of posting the occasional vacation photos on Facebook and hunting for cool images on Pinterest. But having a small social media presence- or worse, none- is really bad for job seekers. Heres what youre inadvertently telling prospective employers when your online persona is virtually non-existent.What Employers Think When Youre Not on Social MediaYoure hiding something.Maybe youve had some iffy pics pop up on Facebook. Or youve tweeted your undying love to Betty White on Twitter. In an effort to clean up your social media presence, you decided to dump it all and delete all of your social media accounts. For a job seeker, though, it can kill your chance of getting a job interview. Having absolutely no virtual footprint is highly suspect, and the first thing that a potential anfhrer will think is that youve done something t hat youre trying to deckblatt up.Youre not social media savvy.While perusing your resume, your boss-to-be is able to approximate how old you are. How? By checking how far back your dates of employment go, when you graduated from college, and the terminology you use in your resume. If a potential employer suspects that you might be an older worker- and then checks online and discovers that you dont have an online presence- he might jump to the conclusion that youre not social media savvy. And no matter what type of job youre looking for, in todays market, social media skills are a must-have.You simply dont care. Lets face it social media just isnt your thing. Youd rather talk than text, and print out pics instead of scrolling through them. If a prospective boss is interested in you, he can make his decision based on your resume and cover letter, right? Wrong. Unfortunately, every job seeker should have a paper trail of his previous employment as well as an online trail. While it migh t seem like a huge waste of time, potential employees are not picked simply by what they submit on a job application. Social media plays a huge factor in whether a candidate gets a callback- or not.You dont have anything to offer.Up until now, your career is a mlange of assorted part-time and full-time jobs in various industries. Your skills are also a mish-mosh of different things acquired over time. By not putting anything online, you hope to hide your spotty working history. But a hiring manager, upon not finding anything about you on social media, might think that youre not a strong candidate. After all, a job seeker who is invested in his job search can and should use every social media channel at his disposal in order to find a job- and there should be proof of that online that a hiring manager can find. That way, he will know that youre serious about your search and will take that same determination and dedication should you be offered a job with that company.No matter what y our reason, having a solid social media presence is an important step in the job search process. Start off by having a professional Facebook page, a polished Google+ page, and a clean Pinterest and Instagram account. You should also establish a Twitter account that you can tweet from to companies youre interested in working for (or even post interesting news topics that relate to your industry). And above all, make sure that your LinkedIn profile is completely filled out and up to date, and use its new blog post feature to write some interesting stories to give potential employers a glimpse into your personality. Once you start, you might find that you enjoy social media- especially when the job interview offers start rolling inReaders, do you have a strong social media presence, or is yours a little lackluster? Why? Let us know in the comments below