I can safely assume that every single one of you will have at least one social media account. We spend hours on social media platforms, posting pictures, updates and catching up with friends. But did you realise the impact it has on your career, and that you can use that to your advantage.

Staffroom Education is one of the fastest growing Employment Agencies in South Wales.
We were founded in 2013 and are based in Cardiff Bay.
We provide quality temporary staff to schools across the Principality.
With flexible working arrangements, it’s ideal for anyone who is currently studying or has other commitments which make having a permanent job difficult.
Also our team help and guide all of our staff right from the beginning.

I am the Marketing and Communications Officer within Staffroom Education. Although my job is incredibly varied my main area is social media.
This involves everything from creating content for our social media accounts, posting job opportunities, to searching social media platforms for potential candidates.
Many of our candidates are university students like yourselves and were found through social media.
I don’t mean to sound stalkerish, but I can work out whether to pass on a potential candidate’s name just by looking at their social media accounts.
This is why I’ve come in today to help you get your social media accounts in tip top condition ready for the job hunt.
This will include: How to brand yourself online, build your network and utilise social media for job searching.

Here are a few statistics around social media and job hunting.
Companies are increasingly using social media as a recruiting tool, in fact 92% of companies are using social media for hiring.
Of the companies using social media for recruitment, LinkedIn comes out top with 93% using it for recruiting with Facebook coming in at 66% and Twitter at 54%.

Although companies using social media for recruiting is at an all time high, is it resulting in employees being hired?
The Muse has found that 73% of employees were hired successfully through social media.
With 42% saying that the quality of the candidates has improved and 20% saying it takes them less time to hire than through traditional means.

If you’ve been following the news or watch Dragons Den you’ve probably already heard of Brand Yourself.

If you missed it, the entire business is around helping individuals and business fix unwanted google results, clean up social media and build an impressive presence and improve their reputation report.
They secured a deal of £100,00 for only 2% stake in their business and the company has a valuation of £5 million.
They realised that a bad online presence can stop you landing that dream job and managed to make a business out of it. So how can you brand yourself without paying for it.

Try to think of social media as your online CV.
LinkedIn – Is a great platform to endorse all those skills you’ve put on your CV. Invest time in making your LinkedIn account an All-Star profile. LinkedIn reported that accounts with a profile photo had 21 times more views than those without. So show potential employers that you’re a real person with real life skills, most companies will post jobs on LinkedIn and it is known as a job based social media platform, so job hunt, connect with professionals and industry experts, network and work on that All-Star Profile.
Twitter – As a trainee teacher, Twitter is a brilliant platform to join and engage with the education community, exchanging ideas, resources and advice. If you haven’t already I would suggest setting up a professional account with Miss/Mr and your last name, also many choose to upload a bitmoji or cartoon of themselves as their profile picture. Why not use Twitter to document your time at University and in the classroom.
Facebook – Is very similar to Twitter, but you can also join groups! Just make sure you have your privacy settings correct so that people can only view certain parts of your profile, also it would be good to change your last name to either your middle name or something else to avoid any savvy students finding you online.
Instagram – There’s a large community of teachers on Instagram, why not get creative and showcase what you’ve been doing in the class through photographs and videos.
Blogging – Lastly I would say starting a blog is a great idea for you to not only document your time on your course and in the classroom but also encourages you to talk about what interests you in your field and your opinion. Wordpress is a personal favourite of mine but find a site that works for you.

Show your personality. Try not to censor yourself too much, show your current situation but be mindful that a recruiter may be looking at your account and what they might think.
To make it easy for recruiters to see who you are and what you want, place your career goals in every social media handle or bio. It makes it a lot easier for potential employees to see exactly what you are about.
If you do have a blog or are thinking about starting one, make sure to interlink all your accounts, so you are easy to find.
This will all help develop a good online presence.

Let’s start with the social media don’ts

Start by having a social media clear out, delete any embarrassing photos you wouldn’t want an employer seeing. Instead keep them in a file so you can reminisce later. No matter how bad a job is or employer, never badmouth them online and be careful what you say online.
Although you might be careful what you post you friends might not be so careful, your friends may tag you something unsuitable or post something on your wall. You can change your Facebook setting to ensure nothing gets posted on your wall unless you approve it.
A third of potential employees are rejected based on something that was found on their social media accounts.

Have a clean professional page, some people choose to have specific professional social media accounts and change the privacy settings on their personal accounts.

Keep your image professional and consistent
Work out who you are and what your brand is.
Ensure you have all the details covered such as courses you’ve studied, achievements, qualifications and location. Also make sure recruiters can easily see your career goals.
As I said earlier, the main thing is to show your personality. A school may require a certain personality for a job role and by looking at your social media it allows recruiters to gain an impression of who you are.

Now that your social media accounts are in order, it’s time to build your network.

Follow everyone that you feel will help you achieve your future career. It can be other teachers, education recruitment agencies, other professionals within your related topic and even direct school twitter accounts.
Join groups and pages. This will allow you to join in conversations and widen your reach and online community.

Now we have the basics covered, how can social media help you land that job.

With 93% of companies using social media to hire it would be crazy to not use it.
For example, when we post jobs online we use hashtags. Hashtags allow you to capture people with certain key words so always use certain hashtags in your job search.
It’s a great start to say your looking for opportunities in your social media handle or bio, but why not post the occasional photo or tweet saying your looking for a job! Combining that with the perfect hashtag allows you to reach people effectively.
Lastly make sure to follow School’s social media accounts. Like us, many School’s and businesses will post available vacancies on their social media profiles. Taking the initiative and engaging with them not only shows your interest but makes you stand out and gives the recruiters a chance to see your perfectly branded social media accounts.

Keep all your social media platforms up to date, especially your LinkedIn profile.

Ensure your social media handle or bio state who you are and your career goals.
Follow schools or professionals within your field.
Join groups and pages to widen your online community.
Only post things you wouldn’t mind a future employer seeing.
Start a blog to document your time on your course and classroom experience.
Initiate conversations with businesses. Top Tip! Engage then attack!
Lastly make sure you have those push notifications enabled so you never miss a job opportunity.

I hope this session has given you an insight into how you can utilise your social media accounts, and what companies look for in potential candidates.

If you have any questions regarding the session please drop us an email or if you are interested in what we offer you can either email us or give us a call.

Lecture at USW on Using Social Media to build your career.