The world continues to get smaller. According to Facebook the average pair of its users has just 3.46 degrees of separation between them. With a single click you can find out instantly what your friend traveling on the other side of the world did today, what they had for lunch and if they were satisfied with the service at the restaurant. In fact, you can see a picture of their meal while it’s still warm. The evolution of Social Media has changed the way we communicate with each other. Consider the process by which today’s students communicate their candidacy for post-graduation employment. Having a single strategy of attending career fairs with hundreds of classmates, submitting a resume and waiting for a recruiter to call is simply not enough. To succeed, students need to be proactive with their job search approach leveraging the power of Social Media. According to the Wall Street Journal if 200 candidates submit a resume to a company for a job opening there is approximately a 3% chance of being selected for an in-person interview. In a recent survey conducted by the National Association of College and Employers 79% of companies with hiring needs classified themselves as passive in their social media use- choosing only to post information about their organizations along with listing open positions. Less than half of responding companies (49.6%) said they were using social media to proactively search for potential candidates. The message is simple: Students need to identify companies of interest, research all they can about them and harness the power of social media to proactively market their candidacy. Consider the power and reach of social media:
• 45% of the world’s population is “on the web”
• 1 billion people have social media accounts
• If Facebook was a country, it would be the world’s third largest by population behind only China and India It has 1.59 billion users that generate 4.5 billion “likes” every day
• 500 million Tweets are generated every day
• LinkedIn has 347 million users (39 million students and recent college graduates).
• Snapchat has 100 million monthly users
At first glance these number can be overwhelming but think of the opportunity they represent. Never before has it been so easy to identify and reach so many to tell “your story”. What makes you unique and the right person for a company’s open position. Having a well thought out proactive social media strategy is essential to every transitioning student. Are you ready???