According to Elance, the leading platform for online employment, more and more companies are using social media to attract top talent.
Their survey reveals that as many as 40% of young professionals employ social media to search for and get jobs. You can use this trend to your advantage and make your resume stand out from heaps of similar looking resumes, especially that traditional job search methods are time-consuming and yielding poor results.
So if you wonder how to use video effectively on social media to promote yourself to employers, keep the following suggestions in mind when making and sharing your video.
Keep it short and sweet like a virtual elevator pitch
Like the 30-second elevator pitch, you need your virtual self-promotion to be short and sweet. Freelance career coaches suggest that you distill what it is exactly you do in one sentence, and present it in such a way that intrigues your audience to watch some more. If you are a travel agent, you may want to say something along the lines of “I help customers find the best hotel deals online” or, if you have been a personal shopper for the rich and famous who do not have time to do it themselves, you may say “I can put together a stylish wardrobe for you.” The shorter the video, the easier it is for you to entice interested parties to click. After all, they only have to “endure” 30 seconds of self-promotion.
Describe the impact or legacy you created in your previous or current position
Instead of reciting a long list of position descriptions, follow up your introduction with a specific impact you make in your present or previous post. Employers look out for value, for what it is that you can do that will make their lives easier and their operations profitable. Of course, it would be far better if you can get this testimonial from a previous employer. This is one of the most effective ways on how to use video well on social media to stand out to hiring managers.
Splash a bit of personal color into your pitch
Companies establish their brand using commercials and other media; similarly, you can use video to share the personal and not just professional side of you. Employers are not just recruiting talent; they are increasingly recruiting people based on skill and personality. Does it seem like you are easy and fun to work with? This is your chance to show your fun side while maintaining a professional image, a feat that is difficult to translate in a traditional resume.
Tag your video using the most popular keywords and phrases related to your job title
In the same way that you hashtag Instagram pictures to make them searchable, you also need to tag your video with relevant keywords. While you learn how to use video effectively on social media to market yourself to top employers, you also need to find out which keywords and phrases that best describe what you do are currently trending in job boards and career hubs. A good start would be to scan job boards for popular job titles that closely describe what you do. Better yet, use their search functionality to find out what keywords and phrases are popular or trending. Then, come up with additional terms associated with your skills and experience, and put those tags on the video as well. Feel free to use variations of the same phrases to attract both search engines and human readers alike.
Share with your connections
Go where your target employers are and participate in their discussion. This presupposes, of course, that you have already laid the groundwork in terms of creating your profile in as many relevant platforms as possible. Your chances of catching the headhunter’s interests increase the more you share with your connections whose other connections may be looking for the skill you have. If you want to go the premium route, you may want to advertise your video via Facebook social ads, LinkedIn ads, or Goodgle AdWords.
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