Differentiating Yourself Through Social Media

Increasing number of users are spending their time online and are using social media tools to express themselves. Amidst this, can the activities (posts/likes/comments) performed by people on social media be used to hire candidates for different job profiles? I see this as a great way to differentiate candidates from others in cases where they have similar educational backgrounds, skill sets, and resumes.

We put ourselves out there whenever we post something, like/comment on a post, or update our Goodreads account with the latest book that we’ve read. Every activity that we perform online conveys some or the other aspect about us. I feel that the reliance on social media to filter applicants will increase with time and will be used to differentiate similar candidates, especially to determine cultural fit (something on the lines of Klout Score, but more focussed towards determining cultural fit instead of influence) . Not limiting to jobs, activities on social media will also be used to filter university applications.

For example, some of the platforms and parameters that these institutions(universities, corporate firms, insurance companies, etc.) will use to determine the quality of the candidates are as follows:

• GoodReads : Number of books, subject/discipline the candidate is interested in
• Twitter : Tweets posted by the user, relevance of the Tweets to the job, relevance of the people followed by the applicant to the job
• LinkedIn : Frequency of articles posted by the users, relevance of the post to the job, relevance of the people followed by the applicant to the job
• Instagram : Pages liked, relevance of the people followed by the applicant to the job, relevance of pictures posted by the applicant to know his/her interests

Especially during these unprecedented times, when jobs for some of the major sectors have disappeared and when most of us are liking those cat videos, differentiating yourself and posting stuff relevant to your professional interests might come handy for securing your dream job in the future.

To conclude, I’ll turn up the volume by saying that choosing the right social media platform is similar to chosing your peers. If done right, it can do wonders!