#SocialRecruiting Series: Popular #SocialMedia Platforms

By Philip J.W. Smith

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Within the next few days, the Canadian working world is preparing to embark on the most anticipated season of the year – summer vacation!


The first two weeks in July are the most popular times of the year to take a vacation. Whether you have plans to travel or are instead organizing a more economical “stay-cation”, consider using this downtime to enhance and experiment with your existing social communication profiles and new social networking platforms, respectively.


Why?!


It is becoming more commonly expected that executives and professionals not only engage in some form of social communication on a regular basis, but also that these same executives and professionals are utilizing multiple social media platforms – and utilizing them very well.


Over the next few weeks, our social recruiting series will explore the most popular social networking platforms used for both social recruiting and leveraging one’s expertise. Whether you plan on using your summer vacation to prepare for a new job search so you’re returning to a job you love, or whether you hope to propel yourself into a new level of recognized expertise within your field, consider how the following social networks may help you reach your professional goals.


1. LinkedIn
This is a professional social networking platform. Your profile serves much like an online resume, but involves much less formality than a traditional resume. LinkedIn allows you to connect and interact with professionals, colleagues, and associates.


2. Twitter
Rapidly becoming more popular, this social communication platform can be used in a professional context as a marketing resource, an information exchange, a collaboration tool, a job search board, and/or for shameless self-promotion.


3. Facebook
It will be interesting to see if this popular social networking site will survive over the next few years given its current state and the rise of fresh, new social media platforms. No matter its fate, Facebook continues to have a powerful influence on the job screening process despite whether or not you use the platform for personal or professional use.


4. Pinterest
Out of all of the social media platforms, Pinterest seems to have gained the most momentum throughout 2012. While engaging in the platform will not greatly prove to affect your career as a whole, having a Pinterest profile will certainly give the impression that you are cutting-edge and willing to try new things.


5. Google+
Hard to say whether or not Google+ will ever become as popular as Facebook or Twitter, but its continued existence shows that it is meeting a very real need in the social communication realm, particularly as a collaboration tool. Knowing how to use Google+ could be the difference between being a preferred candidate for a role, or being overlooked.


6. Social-Hire
This is a brand, spankin’ new social recruiting platform that allows job-seekers and recruiters to connect virtually and anonymously to protect a potential candidates current role. If you’re dreading heading back to work after your vacation time, exploring Social-Hire may not be such a bad idea (and contact me, too, of course!).


7. Blogs
Subscribing to blogs through an RSS feed or otherwise, helps keep you in-the-loop on popular and current issues relating to your career sector. To truly maximize the impact that the world of blogging can have on your online professional presence or social recruiting opportunities, consider starting your own blog. If you don’t have the time to consistently post, instead consider submitting posts or articles as a guest blogger to other blogs.


8. StumbleUpon
This social media platform is much like your own personalized Internet that is only full of sites, articles, pictures, and media that you’re specifically interested in absorbing. If you’re interested in starting your own blog, explore how StumbleUpon can deliver online content directly to you, which you can then use within your own blog.


While only a synopsis of each of the above social communication platforms has been offered, each one will again be addressed in depth in its own separate blog post in the weeks to come.


In the meantime, I leave those of you looking to leverage yourself as an expert using social media during your summer vacation with an infographic from Zintro.


For the rest of you, who are dreading the thought of going back to work and would much rather find a job to which you’d love to go back, I leave you with my contact information.

Learn more about Social Hire

At Social Hire, we don't just do social media.

Do you have a desire to increase the engagement of your business by utilising digital marketing, but can't work out how to begin?

Our group of specialists are an organisation that helps our clients boost their online marketing by offering social media management services on a monthly basis.

You might like these blog posts When it Comes to Marketing There is No Need to Rush, 4 Types of Interactive Content Businesses Can Use to Boost Engagement, How to Decide When to Go From an Employee to an Employer?, and The 5 Habits Of Highly Successful Social Media Managers.

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