Social media can lead way to your next gig

September 11, 2011|By Scott Kirsner, Globe Columnist

Social media can seem sort of aimless - until it helps you land your next job. I collected advice from Boston-area human resources executives, CEOs, and consultants about how to use sites like LinkedIn or Twitter to make yourself a more appealing candidate. Here’s what they said.

Set up a blog. It’s a way to establish yourself as an authority in your field. “Let’s say you are a beer aficionado and want to work for a cool brewer after completing college,’’ says Brian Halligan, chief executive of the Cambridge digital marketing firm HubSpot. “Start a terrific blog about beer while in school that reviews new products, talks about the competitive landscape, compares regions, etc. If your articles are good, people will link to them, you’ll start showing up in Google searches for the brands, you’ll start growing your reach, and before you know it, the execs at the brewers will be reaching out to you.’’

Contribute to industry news sites. It can set you apart from other job hunters, says Sarah McAuley, director of marketing communications at EnerNOC, a Boston firm that helps utilities manage periods of peak energy demand. “A candidate that actively writes for a blog in our industry immediately rises to the top of my list,’’ says McAuley. “It shows he or she is passionate about what we do, and not just looking for their next paycheck.’’

Use different Web venues to highlight your expertise. Programmers might contribute to open source software projects on sites like GitHub, which can attract attention from recruiters. Others might answer questions for fellow users on Quora or in LinkedIn’s “answers’’ area to demonstrate knowledge of a topic like mobile advertising or passing the bar exam. Smarterer.com, a Boston-based site, lets you take online tests to show you know your way around tools like Microsoft Excel and then add the scores to an online resume or Facebook profile.

Follow companies you’d like to work for on Twitter. People who follow @VertexPharma, for example, would hear more about the company and its people through Twitter than by reading press releases and SEC filings, says spokesman Zachry Barber.

Like a company? Say so. Zipcar chief executive Scott Griffith says his company looks for candidates who already act as “brand ambassadors’’ through Twitter, Facebook, and other sites. “We like folks who are already advocates for Zipcar in the social space,’’ he said.