How Social Media Will Help Your Graduate Get a Job - Part 1: Linkedin

Do you have a child in college or recently graduated and still living at home? Have they been sending out resumes to prospective employers but with little to no success? Do you want to help them but just aren't sure exactly how to help beyond looking at their resume or searching for jobs on Monster.com? 

Linkedin Can Help!

Linkedin can be an absolutely amazing tool for professionals when used correctly. Whether you are just looking to build or enhance your professional network, research sales prospects or the way many people view it, find a job. With more then 150 million members, Linkedin has features that are ideal for the new grad. A couple of these features that you (and your grad) may not be aware of are:

• Your Linkedin summary can contain up to 2000 characters - this is important because the more key words and phrases you put in here, the easier it is for recruiters to find you when searching for applicable candidates.
• Linkedin Today - This provides a newsfeed from around the web of topics and articles relevant to your interests/background.  This is a great feature to keep an eye on what is happening in your target industry...which could come in handy during an interview!
• Events - Use this application to find out what conferences, seminars and other events specific people from your target company are attending.  This is a way to turn your online networking into real world connections (and with any luck a future job)!

Want to learn more about how Linkedin can be a vital piece of your student's job search process? Click here

Also, next week I'll be posting an article on how Facebook will help your graduate get the job they really want! So stay tuned!