If you’re job hunting (and who isn’t these days?), social networking sites are the place to prowl. Learn how to link, friend and tweet your way onto the radar of top recruiters and hiring managers. 

When Stephanie Frost started looking for a full-time job after freelancing for a few years, she logged on to Twitter. She wasn’t quite sure how it worked or what purpose it would serve, but the 40-year-old mother of two figured out how to follow people who live near her in Atlanta, reading their tweets. Soon she was replying to tweets, putting her thoughts into the requisite 140 characters or less and making an effort to keep her posts timely. One day, in the midst of her job search, she tweeted, “Funny how being UNemployed can be so exhausting.” She got an intriguing response from someone who lived nearby. He asked her what she was looking for and if she’d like to meet for coffee. She accepted—and ended up with a job in the city she wanted, in the field she wanted and without much travel required. Going in, Stephanie had had no idea that one tweet could help her land this dream job as the director of business solutions at Zero-G Creative, a marketing firm in Atlanta. Though pleasantly surprised by the power of tweets, she cautions, “It doesn’t work overnight. It’s a process.” A process that more and more working moms are discovering.
Stephanie is among 42 million women in the United States who participate in social media at least weekly, according to a recent survey done by BlogHer, a women’s blog network, along with iVillage and Compass Partners. That’s more than half of all adult women in the country who use the Internet. You probably already use at least one social networking site, and you might even be guilty of a Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter addiction. 

So it’s no surprise that with unemployment exceeding 9 percent, job seekers are reaching for tools like tweets, status updates and social network connections to give them a leg up.

And increasingly, human resources professionals and recruiters are finding job candidates through these sites. “This trend is undeniable,” says Kerri Reynolds, group head of global talent acquisition at MasterCard Worldwide. “It’s the mechanism by which companies are connecting with the new generation that’s entering the workforce. You cannot sit back and not be a part of this medium anymore. You will be left behind.” Today, 22 percent of hiring managers use social networking sites to research job candidates, up from 11 percent in 2006, according to a recent survey from CareerBuilder.com.

The Linkedin Loop
Although savvy social networkers can find a way to use any of these sites as job search tools, LinkedIn is the goto site for recruiters. And for good reason. While users are posting pictures of their new babies and their Caribbean vacations on Facebook or linking to controversial articles on Twitter, LinkedIn profiles mimic traditional resumés so HR professionals can easily search the site and locate viable candidates.

“On LinkedIn, you have keywords, job titles, career history, education. So, for a recruiter, that’s a convenient site,” says Luke McGlynn, director of recruiting and talent development at Hallmark Cards in Kansas City, MO.

Liz Lynch, founder of the Center for Networking Excellence and author of Smart Networking: Attract a Following in Person and Online, agrees. “If you’re trying to find a job, I would focus on Linked- In,” she says. There are 40 million people on the site, and all of them are there for the same purpose: to network and improve their career-related connections. The site aims to help you leverage your business contacts—and their contacts and their contacts’ contacts. If there’s someone at a particular company you’d like to email but you’re not linked to, the site will let you know if you’re connected within three degrees and, if you are, through whom. That way, you can tap your existing connection to help make an introduction. You don’t even need to go on the site every day to make it work for you. The most important step is to post a complete profile that includes everything a traditional resumé would include: employment history and job descriptions, professional accomplishments, education. You can also include recommendations from former bosses or coworkers. Recruiters will search for keywords, so make sure any terms that represent you and your search are included in your LinkedIn profile.

One job seeker who updated her profile to include the fact that she speaks Italian promptly heard from a recruiter at Prada who was looking to fill a position in Milan. Strategic keywords can unlock the to great job offers, Lynch says. 

On the flip side, if you’re not on a social networking site, it can potentially hurt you. When Lynch was asked to refer a banker who could help put a real estate deal together, she sought the candidate she had in mind on LinkedIn but couldn’t find that person. She reached out to someone easier to contact—and he landed the job. “You never know where an opportunity is going to come from,” Lynch says.

You can also join groups or networks for people who went to your school or for professionals in your field, which puts you in touch with contacts who can help you make connections or find appropriate jobs. Recruiters might even search specific groups, like experts in Java or bankruptcy law, if they’re looking to fill targeted positions. 

Once you’re up and running on the site, beware of common pitfalls like using incorrect spelling and grammar or posting inappropriate pictures or personal information that would be out of place on a written resumé. When you start linking to people, it’s best to begin with those you already know or have worked with before. If you see people on the site to whom you’re not connected but you’d like to contact—maybe because they work at a company you want to work for—it’s acceptable to send a direct invitation to link, but be sure to include an explanation about who you are and why you’re getting in touch. After you’ve made an initial connection, LinkedIn can continue to be beneficial. “Anytime I have a business meeting with someone I’ve never met before, I go to LinkedIn to see their background and who they are,” says Lynch. “It’s a natural tool to help you prepare for interviews.”

Friending on Facebook
While Facebook is a great site for sharing stories and photos with other moms and discovering that your long-lost high school crush is now bald and broke, it’s less effective for professional networking than LinkedIn. Of course, there’s always a chance someone you know is aware of a job opening or knows a recruiter looking to fill a spot. But since Facebook is predominantly a social site, hiring managers tend to use it for screening applicants rather than finding candidates.

Remember, what you post publicly is just that: public, and available for all to see. It’s in your best interest to use privacy settings to block your profile and pictures from anyone outside your network. Keep in mind that any questionable images or statements that are floating around cyberspace can, and likely will, be used against you. McGlynn also advises against friending on Facebook: “Be careful not to confuse friending and linking.” 

He says an invitation to join a candidate’s network on LinkedIn is more welcome than a friend request on Facebook, which indicates a more personal connection. If you find a professional contact on a more social site, it’s better to send a direct message than an invitation to be friends.

All A-Twitter
If you haven’t jumped on the Twitter bandwagon yet, it’s easy to do. Just go to Twitter.com and pick a name to call yourself. Most people use their real name, but you can be creative, as long as you don’t pick something that will sound unappealing to prospective bosses. Once you’re in, you can search for people to follow—ones you know, ones you don’t, celebrities or companies.

It’s basically a collection of quick status updates. You can respond to other people’s tweets, retweet something provocative that someone else tweeted, link to an interesting article you read online or just be a silent observer.

In spite of Stephanie Frost’s Twitter success, this site is only beginning to leverage its power in the job search market. Check to see if organizations you’d like to work for have Twitter accounts so you can follow them and get the inside scoop about what really goes on there. Other sites like Tweetajob.com allow recruiters to post job openings, and TweetBeep.com enables you to receive an email alert each time a job posting is tweeted at one of the companies that interest you. Stephanie hosts monthly “tweetups” in her area so she can meet the people whose tweets she reads every day. If people know you offline as well as online, they’re more likely to vouch for you or think of you when a suitable job pops up. If these leading social networking sites don’t seem quite right for you or your industry, pop onto Ning.com, where you can search for social networks associated with your profession or even create your own. Meetup.com is another useful site that pairs social networking with in-person events so you can introduce yourself to other people in your field.

Remember to be polite and professional while you network online—even though you may be sitting around in your jammies. “Social graces such as handwritten thank-you cards still matter, even in the twenty-first century,” says McGlynn. And never underestimate the power of a face-to-face meeting or follow-up phone call. Social networking may be the wave of the future, but good manners and positive first impressions are timeless.