by means of a default message (e.g., “I would like to add you to my professional network – Valentina Boyd”). It is also possible to write a personal note in order to drive contacts in an attempt to have more people that will accept the invitation.
Nonetheless, LinkedIn™users should manage their contacts strategically. What matters most is not how many contacts someone has (quantity), but to whom he/she is connected (quality). Hence, the quality of connections is more important than the quantity.
LinkedIn™users can make themselves more visible by adding a profile picture and by strategically choosing relevant keywords (i.e., with which they differentiate themselves from other users and which are relevant to organizations). They can also follow organizations and participate in the LinkedIn™ discussion groups for sharing content and for questions and answers (see Sect.9.2.1). Furthermore, it is important to regularly update a profile to get higher in the search results (see SEO, Chap. 6). In order to create a consistent and up-to-date profile, old content or incorrect information should be removed. In order to create a consistent message, it is advisable that candidates compare their re´sume´ with their profiles on social media (Mashable2013).
On the other hand, LinkedIn™users can also manage their public profile by means of privacy settings. As such, an individual can decide that his/her (first- degree) connections have access to more information than people who are not directly connected and might be strangers to the individual. An example of privacy controls is the different options to exclude the profile picture or the list of connections from a user’s public profile.
Finally, candidates can use LinkedIn™information about a certain organization, its employees, and their skills to prepare for a job interview or an assessment. As such, candidates who apply for a job can prepare themselves, knowing that the recruiters will also be prepared. All information available should be used efficiently as social media can be seen as a big database which contains a lot of information that is used for the same purpose as a traditional database (see business intelligence, Chap.8). In order to be careful, individuals can keep the following advice in mind (Rombouts2012):
• Do not lie.
• Do not provide too much details.
• Do not share personal information in a professional community.
• Do not randomly send LinkedIn™request to connect.
9.3.2 Other e-Recruitment Tools for Employees
As many people have an account on nonprofessional social media tools (see Chap. 1), e-recruitment is not necessarily limited to a professional community such as LinkedIn™. We now illustrate how (future) employees can get recruited by using Facebook™or Twitter™.
Although private information belongs to a nonprofessional community, social media users should be careful with the information they reveal on such social media tools too. For instance, before posting pictures of a hobby on Facebook™(https://
www.facebook.com/), users should safely set their privacy settings to decide who can see those pictures. Similarly, when using apps on Facebook™, those apps typically have access to the user’s information, pictures, and posts as well.
Facebook™ allows to set privacy settings to manage who can see posts, tags, shares, and contact details. For instance, examples of different sharing options are (1) shares that everyone can see, (2) shares that only “friends” and “friends of friends” can see, or (3) shares that only direct “friends” can see (i.e., which is the safest option). Such privacy settings need to be checked regularly as the social media tool may have changed its privacy policy meanwhile. Similar to the Google +™circles, Facebook™also offers the option of “Lists for friends” to share some personal information, pictures, or posts with only a specific group of friends (e.g., only to relatives and not to acquaintances). This implies that Facebook™users can create and use subgroups with specific group functionalities (https://www.
facebook.com/help/friends/lists).
Candidates should be aware that a rewind button on the Internet does not exist.
Similar to other social media tools, Facebook™ messages are undeletable (see Chap.1). For instance, the Terms of Service of social media tools can stipulate that even deleted profile pictures can be reused, e.g., for advertising purposes (see Chap. 11about the ownership of social media content). Therefore, social media users should think twice before revealing information on social media. This impli- cation also emphasizes the need for candidates to create a consistent message and to compare their re´sume´ with their social media profiles.
Furthermore, Twitter™has some specific features that can be used for e-recruit- ment (https://twitter.com). As Twitter™contains information about various topics based on tweets and retweets, it is important to carefully choose who to follow in order to avoid an information overload. To find people with similar interests, search queries can be launched with hashtags preceding keywords. Twitter™can be used for both professional and personal information, but users should keep in mind that tweets and retweets are available in the public domain. For instance, Twitter™can be used to stay tuned about certain topics that relate to a profession (e.g., for a consultant) or a decent hobby (e.g., for a hobby chef) rather than to share private pictures. This means that users should find a balance between what they tweet and what not (i.e., “give and take”) and remember that Twitter™is rather used to build a network with (unknown) people that share similar interests and to demonstrate a user’s expertise. Although Twitter™is less frequently used than Facebook™, it can be used for recruiting specific profiles. For instance, depending on the type of job, Twitter™can be used for certain niches in which networking is important (e.g., consultants or journalists), albeit without replacing real-life networking.
Some common e-recruitment hashtags for (future) employees are presented in Table 9.2 (Career Enlightenment 2012; Recruiter.com 2014; SmartRecruiters 2011). One tip is to include a city name in the hashtag (#CityName), so recruiters know that the person is looking for a vacancy in New York (#NY), Paris (#Paris), or
Ghent (#Ghent). It is also possible to use industry keywords that express an expertise (e.g., #WebDesign, #java, or #SEO). Furthermore, it is interesting to know that #re´sume´ (UK alternative) is more frequently used than #CV (US alternative), although both terms can be used as synonyms.
In sum, as with employer branding by organizations, (future) employees can work on their employee branding by making their re´sume´ look better with accurate information. Some tips to increase employability and to build a professional online identity are (Byers Workforce Solutions2011; Videojug2009):
• Do a search engine search to see what is out there about you.
• Clean up social media profiles and make them consistent.
• Clearly outline a personal description (e.g., correct job title, industry, skills, etc.).
• Subscribe to RSS feeds of organizations.
• For LinkedIn™ users, make connections, get recommendations and endorsements, and import email contacts to find professional connections
• For Facebook™ users, specify keywords to facilitate e-recruitment ads and define privacy settings (e.g., which pictures, posts, or comments are publicly available and which are not)
• For Twitter™users, regularly communicate to build relationships, follow, (re) tweet, share, etc.