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February 9th, 2023
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How to use social media to find your next contract
So, your contract is coming to an end and you’re ready to find the next role but how can you do this on your social media?
Social media is used every day by almost all of us, the majority of people reading this will have at least one social profile on one of the major networks (LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter). Many use social media to keep in touch with friends and family, but it can be so much more than just posting what you had for lunch it can also help you find your next contract.
LinkedIn is probably the simplest and easiest social network to master when looking for a job. Your profile will be the pinnacle to this and optimising it properly can really make the difference.
Many recruiters, including KDR, use LinkedIn to search for candidates. To find these candidates we use keyword searches and look at job titles and profiles to match to the job spec. To make sure you are coming up higher in searches make your job title is in your headline, you can also put “looking for next contract” to make it even more obvious to the recruiter that you are searching. You also need to make sure any keywords you want to be found for are used in your profile in both the summary and experience sections, you should also make sure these sections are filled out properly (your LinkedIn profile can act as another CV).
You can also take steps to find the next role, LinkedIn does also act as a job board and suggests jobs that may be relevant to you. It is always a good idea to keep an eye on this and search for jobs on LinkedIn, you can apply for these roles using your LinkedIn profile so again it is essential your profile is completed properly and is kept up-to-date.
Twitter can be a bit more difficult to master to find your next contract. If you already have a personal Twitter account we would suggest setting up another account for professional, job hunting purposes.
Similar to LinkedIn you need to make sure your profile is complete, making sure you use keywords in your bio and choose a head image and profile picture that represents you as a professional. If you have a website or link to your CV (or even your LinkedIn profile) put this in your bio so recruiters have easy access to see a full profile of you. You also need to make sure you are using Twitter effectively and tweet (and retweet) relevant content otherwise you can run the risk of looking like a fake account or as being inactive.
The easiest way to connect with relevant people and companies and get their attention is to follow them, there is an unwritten rule on Twitter that if someone follows you and they are active you follow them back, and this is why it is so important to make sure you are sharing relevant content. Once a recruiter or recruitment company has followed you back it can be a good idea to send them a Direct Message (DM) to introduce yourself and ask if they can help you.
As well as doing all this you can actively search for jobs as well, many recruitment consultants will tweet their latest roles using hashtags, for example when advertising a Data Governance Analyst role a recruiter may tweet “New #Job – #DataGovernance #Analyst needed in #London. Contact xx to find out more. #Contract”, it can be a good idea for you to search hashtags that are relevant to the work you do to find live roles.
Facebook can be a bit more difficult as this is primarily a personal social network and many profiles are set to private making it difficult for recruiters to find you.
Our advice for Facebook would be a little similar to Twitter. The best thing for you to do is find recruitment companies you want to contact or follow and like their page. You can then also send them a private message to ask for help or find out if they have any roles that may be of interest to you.
If you are using a personal profile to do this and your privacy settings aren’t fully locked down make sure you don’t post anything inappropriate on your Facebook as a recruiter may see this when looking at your profile, as the saying goes “if you don’t want your Grandma to see it, don’t post it”.
These are just some things you can do on social media to help find your next contract role, by following these tips you can make yourself more visible to hirers and recruitment consultants.
Do you currently use social media to find your next contracts?
KDR Recruitment is the home of the best data, analytics and technology jobs. For more career advice check out the KDR blog or follow KDR on LinkedIn.
