Information Technology and Ethics/Social Networking and Business

Job Search

Job searching, job hunting or job seeking is the act of looking for employment, due to unemployment or discontent with a current position. The immediate goal of job seeking is usually to obtain a job interview with an employer which may lead to getting hired. The job hunter or seeker typically first looks for job vacancies or employment opportunities. Traditionally, job seekers used to flip through newspapers, listen to radio advertisements or physically visit companies for job possibilities, The advent of computers and Social Media has changed the way job seekers and recruiters search for jobs or candidates respectively.

Disadvantages and advantages of Social Networking

Hen party in San Francisco, USA-1Aug2010

If anyone were to “Google” your name what would they find? This is what many job seekers should think about before they upload inappropriate content on a social networking websites. Some believe an employer does not have the right to delve into the private lives of their prospective employees. However, prospective employers think differently because what their employees do may have a bearing on how their workers perform, and what employees do on their off time may reflect poorly on the company’s image. Social networking can be helpful to both job seekers and employers; they can begin by starting something that's related to your career interest. Your blog could also help showcase your skills and track your job search. Here are few Do's and Don’ts of social networking.

Be careful of what you put online. With the power of cloud computing and enormous storage devices, search engines and social media channels are storing tons of information about you, which is readily available online.
Be careful of what you write or post online because deleting an 'inappropriate picture' from your social media page like Facebook doesn't mean that the picture will not be found when searched. The social media channels have ultimate power to retain materials posted, and search engines can trace almost anything posted online.
Creating an online account and posting resumés on job sites like Dice, Indeed, Simplyhired, Beyond, TheLadders, Monster etc. exposes your online presence (your resume) to many recruiters and makes your resumé easily searchable. An online resume should include relevant industry standard 'keywords' to make it searchable.
Be consistent with your online presence information: be consistent with your experience, education or information you post on different channels, because that can easily harm you. Remember your online presence is a public entity——people can access it anytime——and misrepresenting your experience, education or simply being inconsistent can damage your online credibility. You should frequently "Google" yourself to see your online presence, you might be surprised with the outcome.
Do not use inappropriate images or party pictures as your LinkedIn profile photo or on your portfolio, because recruiters could easily judge your character by simply looking at your images. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words.
Do not include a hyperlink on your resume which may contain an inappropriate content. Also, if you include a hyperlink to Facebook, LinkedIn or your online portfolio, please test and make sure the links work, and it corresponds to the right information.

LinkedIn Logo

Professional social networking sites like LinkedIn are specifically designed to connect with people you know like other networking sites. Unlike other sites they post listing for professional jobs. If you are looking for a job in a specific company it allows you to search for connections within the company. LinkedIn also allows users to email all their connections about searches and posting. Twitter can also be used to search for jobs; tweets on job postings can allow you an advantage in applying for a job. Following companies may allow job seekers help in discovering if a company may be the right for them.

The rule of thumb of using Social Media, is to stay away from posting pictures, articles, tweets, comments etc. when you are angry, drunk, or otherwise “not at your best”; and double check anything before posting it. Remember, everything that crosses your mind is not necessarily meant for the public.

Benefits of Social Networking

Having a strong presence online can be beneficial to job searching. According to a CareerBuilder.com survey that asked 2,303 hiring managers and human resources professionals on why they include social media in their hiring process. The results found that 37% of employers use social media to screen potential job candidates. The information a person provides online can give potential employers a view of who the potential employee is. In some cases it could lead to employers offering jobs to potential employees. A person's online presence can show potential employers if you're a good fit for the company by showing your personality outside of work. The profile can show a professional image that they may be looking for. That is why most organizations embrace social networking in their business.

During the initial stages of the introduction of social media platforms, many organizations and individuals regarded it as something only used by kids and had no value for business and could not benefit them (Yu, & more, 2017). However, over time, the skeptics proved to be false because there are more than 3 billion users of the internet and above 2 billion of web users possess social media accounts (Egan, 2017). In the current dynamic business world, popular social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter have become marketing giants for most organizations. Organizations use these sites to post jobs and advertise their businesses. These platforms provide businesses with valuable data concerning customers, potential employees, and free means of reaching them.

Screening through an applicant’s social media profiles is something that is becoming increasingly more common among companies looking to hire, and it’s a good idea to do some research about the do’s and don’ts. Social media can also have positive advantages: for example it can be used to reach out and find other people in your field. There are many ways social media can tie into the job search process.

Being active on social media isn't something mindful job seekers need to be afraid of and avoid. If you’re active in the right way it can be beneficial for your image. Doing simple things like adding work history, interests and skills to your Facebook account can help your account show up for a hiring professional's search results or even show friends and acquaintances what you’re into, and may bring opportunities to your door. Things like a twitter, and Instagram can help you share your thoughts with people and bring a user into contact with potential employers. Social media can be beneficial if used to show your best self instead of worst.

Networking, using social media to other people in your field

Social media can also play a more active part in the job search. Through social media you can not only establish your presence to the world, you can tailor your image and curate it to what you desire. With social media you can specifically choose what you do and don’t put out for the world to see. This can be a powerful tool in finding like minded individuals in your community. For example, if you are going to school to be a chef, you might post pictures of your cooking on Facebook or Instagram. You might tweet about dishes you are making or cooking techniques that you are learning. You can add other food accounts such as more chefs, food magazines or groups, and in return people who also like food can find you. If your profiles are public, then it’s easy for your content to show up on their feeds. Through these channels you can find other food and chef communities, which could always lead to potential job opportunities. Here are some specific ways you can use social media to professionally network:

Add/follow other users in your community. Using hashtags, it is easy to find other pictures and users who are into the same subjects and interests as yourself. From there you can simply add or follow them in order to keep to to date on their news feeds.

   “Share photos of you speaking at events, winning awards, volunteering or participating in company events. These images provide a glimpse of what's important to you and help you stand out.” (Morgan, Hannah. Online)

Comment on other’s content or email other users. Leaving comments or direct messaging out to others is an easy way to break the ice. It could be as simply as complimenting them on their work or introducing yourself as another member of the community.
Join a group. Many platforms will have communities and groups for various interests you can join. This is an easy way to find like minded individuals and join in on group discussions.
Live stream content you in your element. Many platforms where you can now live stream video. You could use this to showcase your skills in a live demonstration, share a speech on thoughts in your field, or take video if you’re at a work-related event (with permission of course.) Just make sure to keep the content clear and professional.You can also see the profiles of people watching the event and some you may be interested in following. (Morgan, Hanna. Online)

There are many different kinds of social media platforms available, and all of them have the potential to be used for job networking. Here are a few of the major ones and their differences in relation to the workplace:

The difference in the Various Social Media Platforms.

Facebook

Facebook is one of the most famous social platforms with over 1.65 billion users that include both personal and business users worldwide (Egan, 2017). Businesses use Facebook to share photos about their products, updates, and general news with their followers. Fans of a Facebook page visit a page to find out what is happening on with the company and explore activities of the organization. Facebook Ads are amazingly effective in bringing strong leads that are looking for services (Yu, & more, 2017).

LinkedIn

LinkedIn has fewer users than Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. On the contrary to Facebook which is designed for multiple uses such as marketing and social interact avenue, LinkedIn is mainly designed for professional and business use. The majority of the users only go to LinkedIn to give their personal branding and job experience as well as their professional thoughts. As a result, LinkedIn is the best social networking site for job and employee hunting among all social media platforms.

Twitter

Twitter has over 310 million registered users, which is far much lower than the Facebook user (Egan, 2017). It operates in a fast-paced, concise, and simple way of connecting and interacting with the audience. Twitter allows one to share posts, photos, and short videos to generate traffic to an organization. One major drawback of Twitter as compared to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram is that it provides few characters and as such, one needs to make good use of the characters and become brief in the wordings.

Instagram

Instagram has the least number of users after LinkedIn but is becoming popular as recent studies indicate that approximately 71 percent of the globe’s biggest brands now utilize Instagram to do marketing (Yu, & more, 2017). Recently, Instagram integrated with Facebook and the ability to upload videos has made it compliment Facebook mobile engagement.

Ideal Social Networking site

From the characteristics and differences of the social networking platforms, a comparison of which platform is the best for job search can be made. Between Facebook and LinkedIn, LinkedIn is the most appropriate and ideal place to search for job opportunities because it is where professionals showcase their job experience and skills. Most recruiters will also prefer to use LinkedIn to search for potential employees. Facebook is ideal for marketing due to a large number of users. On the other hand, both Twitter and Instagram are not ideal for job searching because they only allow concise posting and most organizations and individuals use them for marketing advertisement and sharing their thought (Yu, & more, 2017). As a result, the three social networking platforms, that is, Twitter, Instagram, as well as Facebook do not relate to job search because they do not lack professionalism aspect present in LinkedIn.

Advertising

Digg

Since organizations are always looking for new forms of advertising, they have discovered a new medium——social networks. There are two reasons why advertisers may use social networks. Advertisers can create an opportunity to generate a conversation with people who view the ad. Advertiesments are sometimes targeted to reach a certain demographic of people. Advertisers use different strategies so that their messages meet their target audiences. Direct advertising is when a banner is displayed either on everyone's homepage or used to target specific people. Companies are beginning to create groups to advertise a particular product and interest users can join and become fans and the group may grow because more people join because of their friends. This sort of advertising can create viral marketing, which encourages individuals to pass along marketing messages.

The Importance of personal information in social networking

Recently, personal information leakage accidents are occurring frequently in social networking. Accordingly, the need for technical and managerial protection measures is required. However, due to the different requirements of different privacy laws in different countries, different national or interregional protection measures are required.

The necessity of building an independent integrated legal system

In social networks, the response system for personal information protection is dispersed so that it is ineffective in actual response, and it is the opinion of many to go to a unified system. In Korea, the laws related to the protection of personal information were first established in 2001 in response to infringement accidents on information and communication infrastructure.

Conclusion of Social Networking and Business

Through our announcement today, we learn about the disadvantages and advantages of social networking services in our daily lives, how social networks are used in our daily lives, and the various platforms within social networking services. Finally, in social networking services, we know the importance of privacy and how to solve it. Nowadays, in social networking services like Twitter and Facebook, we can share a lot of material and many ideas of people. In the past, this was an unimaginable thing for us. However, we need to know that our personal information can be leaked to someone. Therefore, government efforts to protect our privacy are important, I think we also have our own responsibility.

Bibliography

1. Brooks, Chad. May 11, 2016. Social Screening: What hiring managers look for on social media. http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/2377-social-media-hiring.html

2. Career Builder. April 28, 2016. Number of employers using social media to screen candidates has increased 500 percent over the last decade. Retrieved from http://www.careerbuilder.com/share/aboutus/pressreleasesdetail.aspx?ed=12/31/2016&id=pr945&sd=4/28/2016

3. Egan, K. (2017). The Difference Between Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google +, YouTube, & Pinterest. Impactbnd.com. Retrieved 19 April 2017, from https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/the-difference-between-facebook-twitter-linkedin-google-youtube-pinterest

4. McCough, Cameron. (February 22, 2017) Be careful what you post. It might just get you rejected from you dream school. Retrieved from http://college.usatoday.com/2017/02/22/social-media-applying-to-college/

5. Morgan, Hanna. February 17, 2016. 7 Ways to advance your career with social media. Retrieved from http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/articles/2016-02-17/7-ways-to-advance-your-career-with-social-media 6. Riley, Lauren. April 17, 2014. Social Media Screening: Is it ethical? Retrieved from http://www.hrzone.com/talent/acquisition/social-media-screening-is-it-ethical

7. Smith, Jaquelyn. 2013. How media can help (or hurt) you in your job. Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/07/instagram_and_self_esteem_why_the_photo_sharing_network_is_even_more_depressing.html

8. Yu, J., & more, R. (2017). Facebook, Twitter or Instagram: Determining the best Platform for mobile marketing. Entrepreneur. Retrieved 19 April 2017 from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/231446