Social Media Is Here to Stay

With economic recovery in full swing, job seekers have the confidence they need to find the best possible jobs out there. The use of social media and mobile devices has transformed job searching and the hiring process, and these innovations are not going away any time soon.

The sixth annual Job Seeker Nation Study from Jobvite shows that job seekers look for work anytime, anywhere, using mobile devices. Social media networks turn into job opportunities, and a work-life balance has become increasingly important to career-minded individuals.

LinkedIn is seen as the top social media website by recruiters, even though job seekers prefer Facebook. All income levels of job seekers use Facebook, whereas high-end earners take to Twitter and LinkedIn to find work. Pinterest, Instagram and Snapchat are not in the "big three" of social networks, but they have become more valuable to job seekers. Pinterest users, for example, find inspiration in pins featuring nifty infographic resumes that might catch a recruiter's eye.

Honesty on social media has become an issue. Highly educated male job seekers are more likely to exaggerate and inflate job skills through their profiles, including fabricated references on Facebook and Twitter. This presents a challenge for recruiters who vet candidates. If one of those references proves false in the job process, the recruiter must start from scratch to find another position. Honesty in the job search process saves a lot of time, headache and eventual heartache.

Millennials have created mobile juggernauts with the convenience of job-search apps. Although computers still reign as the search tools of choice, smartphones have become more widespread for tasks such as updating Twitter profiles, posting to Facebook and searching for jobs. People continually use the two devices to find jobs, but more mobile apps have come into play in job searches. Although 91 percent of job seekers use a computer, 83 percent of them also use a smartphone to find open positions. More than half of the people who seek jobs do so in less than 10 minutes on smartphones, and 86 percent spend under an hour at a time looking for opportunities.

The application process is no different; as many as 61 percent of candidates apply on a computer, while 31 percent who apply right away on a smartphone. With this information in hand, companies should adapt to the changing technological landscape by combining mobile searches with social media. Younger, more highly educated candidates find information about a company's background and culture on websites such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, and companies should have such information available for people looking for jobs.

Social media is not just for keeping track of friends and relatives. Job seekers and companies that have open positions have transitioned to more mobile ways of thinking as job searching becomes more convenient with new technology.

Photo courtesy of Karlis Dambrans at Flickr.com