Anyone who is looking to start a career (or move on in their career) right now knows that the market is still tough. There are an increasing number of people looking for jobs, but open positions are far and wide. This means employers have the pick of the litter when filling positions!

So how do you get a leg up on your competition?
That's right! Using social media platforms you can gain and edge over other job seekers in your field.

My first job at the company I work for now as a New Media Specialist was as a Social Recruiter. It was my job to go online, meet and network with engineers and sell the company to them. This aggressive form of recruiting is highly successful and is gaining mass popularity around the world.

Now you might be saying to yourself, "But social media doesn't apply to my field." Yes it does. Welcome to the 21st century! Social media is everywhere and it isn't going away. So get with it and use it to better your career!

I'll start with the best and most important social media tool for job hunting:

LinkedIn is one of the easiest and most professional ways of finding a job and being found by a recruiter. LinkedIn allows you to create an online resume that is searchable by the 135 Million+ members. Forty-one percent of LinkedIn users are utilizing the site for social recruiting (infographic). This is not a social network for personal information--only job and education history. You can then network with old and current coworkers on a professional level.

Completing your resume profile with as much detail as possible is the most important to be recruiting accurately. Recruiters can search the LinkedIn database by people with a specific job title, (former) employer, college or university, skills, certification, years of experience, location, and anything else you provide in the given spaces.

Once a recruiter has found your profile and is interested in you, they have the ability to send you a message which lets you know you have the expertise they are looking for and they will also provide you with a link to apply for the specific position online. It's the new way to cold call.

Through LinkedIn you can also take a more aggressive approach by looking for the jobs yourself instead of waiting for someone to find you. You can do this one of three ways.

Companies can create profile pages on LinkedIn. Company profile pages allow you to view a company overview, all LinkedIn users who are employed at said company, the company's products or services, and their open employment positions. If you have a specific company in mind that you would like to work at, it would be a good idea to "Follow" that company and when and employment opportunity is posted it will show up on your LinkedIn homepage.


LinkedIn also offers a comprehensive job search tool where you can enter in any job title imaginable from engineers to zoo keepers and from electricians to CEOs. Once you enter a job title into the search, you can then refine your search by relationship (whether anyone you've networked with on LI works there or has any connection there), company, location, date job was posted, salary, job function, industry, and experience level.

By using these refining tools you will save a lot of time during your job search by not having to view postings that do not apply to you. Once you find a posting you like, follow the directions listed to apply! So easy. No more jumping from site to site looking for job postings!

Lastly, using LinkedIn's group search. You can find groups of like-minded professionals who are open with sharing job openings, career advice, and networking opportunities through a message board style of communication. For example while searching for "clown" groups, the results provided me with 20 groups dedicated to clowning. Now if I wanted to be more specific, I could have tried "Michigan clowns" to see if something more local was available. Many established organizations have LI groups, like The Public Relations Society of America: Detroit (PRSSA-Detroit) in which you can join. By joining groups associated with your area or field you will increase your reputation in the industry and get your name out there for recruiters who monitor group activity looking for recruits!

Twitter is not the best way of finding and applying for jobs, but there are tools out there that make it possible. Even if they aren't the most effective, Twitter doesn't take long and every little effort counts!

First off, make your Twitter profile Employer Friendly. Delete any old tweets with any unsavory content that might be a turn off for perspective employers. Once you begin applying for jobs using Twitter, your profile will be their first impression of you. Even though deleting your tweets does not erase them forever (the internet is permanent; it does not forget), employers won't see them front in center during a casual search.

It would also be a good idea to put a link to your online CV or resume, like your LinkedIn profile, in your Twitter bio to ensure it gets maximum exposure (use a URL shortener like bit.ly to make sure it fits).

Besides using Twitter's standard search bar to find postings, follow various job posting Twitter accounts. Mashable has put together this great list of accounts to follow:

By field

By job type

By region

General

You can also follow the hashtag #TweetMyJobs. Or you can even use a third-party website like TwitJobSearch, which will help you search Twitter's database for job postings.

Your Klout score, the measurement of your influence based on your ability to drive action on social networks, is a key indicator of your knowledge base and you ability to create content and engage with others online. Klout measures how many people you influence (true reach), how much you influence them based on engagement (amplification), and your influence on your network (network impact). Klout analyzes every piece of social media content--every tweet and Facebook post--to assign every SM user topics and levels of influence.

I, for example, tweet a lot about digital technology, the area in which I live, and advertising so Klout has determined I have a Klout Score of 49 and I am influential about Advertising, Detroit and Social Media.

Your Klout Score is a number between 1 and 100. People who have concise, highly-focused, and knowledgeable content subjects usually range over 40. Klout founder and CEO, Joe Fernandez, considers the average score to be about 20 and a score above 30 to be reputable and a score above 50 to be elite. Once you are a high influencer, people can use Klout to search for knowledgeable personalities on any subject like social media or pottery or speed walking. Just another way for people to find you in the great Social Media Ocean.

In the world of job hunting, Klout can play a pivotal role in employers choosing an applicant. Klout's Garth Holsinger explains:



Stay tuned for my upcoming article about how to raise your Klout score!


By using all of these social media tactics, you are creating a funnel that leads directly to you. You start off creating a brand for yourself that appeals to employers then create all of these paths that catch their interest, via social media, that lead back to you.

Ultimately, the more you put yourself out there the more changes you have of getting their attention.

In these days of competitive job searching you can no longer sit back and wait, you have to actively pursue a large amount of potential leads and always putting your best foot forward.