Online Tactics to Boost Your Job Success

Using social media to land a job.


When you're looking for a job, you spend a lot of time hoping that you will get lucky this time and find the perfect job. The truth is that it doesn't take luck to find a job. It takes opportunity. Unlike luck, opportunity is something you have to make for yourself. If you think about it, most of those "lucky situations" that improved your life weren't random events, unless you won big at the lottery. For the most part, these golden opportunities arose because of specific actions you took to make them happen. Opportunity can't knock if you don't give it your address.


If you want to use social networking to create your own luck, here are 5 ways to boost your job success and bring opportunities your way.


Get on Twitter - Of course having a great Linkedin profile and a Facebook account is always a good idea, but the best way to get in contact with people you don't already know is through Twitter. Set up an account and read a few tutorials until you get the hang of it. It might take a couple of days, but it is one of the best investments you can make in your career.


Use the Retweet (RT) feature - If there is someone you want to notice you, but you don't want to be pushy, try retweeting something they said. If you want to make an even better impression, retweet them and add a thoughtful comment. It might feel like copying at first, but in the world of Twitter, retweeting someone is a compliment and everyone can appreciate flattery.

Check your privacy setting on Linkedin - So many job seekers choose to keep their profiles anonymous, but I'm not sure why. When you look up someone on the site and read over their profile, make sure that your name comes up in the list of people who have viewed their profile. If you think about it, why wouldn't you want them to know that you took the time to research them?  The people you want to know might seem to be unapproachable, but the reality is that we are all human. Very few of us can resist the urge to look at who was checking us out.


Use your stalking skills to network - When it comes to finding out information about ex-partners or old friends, most of us are like our own cyber-detectives. Use those same skills to target the companies and people you want to work for. Before you apply for a job, use your research skills to find out more about the job or the company. Once you apply, it doesn't hurt to contact the person on Twitter. Unlike most social networking sites, it's not considered creepy or rude to contact people you don't know.


Make your profile easy to stalk - Once you've gone out of your way to cyber-stalk the people who you want to notice you, don't let that go to waste by having a private profile or not having a well thought out profile page. Getting them to notice you is only half of the equation, you have to make sure that you have content that will impress them and show who you are.


What do you think about these tips? Please share your thoughts and suggestion in the comments.
By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for PhillyJobsBlog and Nexxt, along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.