In this day and age, the job market is more competitive than ever. Depending on what’s happening in the world, such as a global pandemic, and depending on what industry you’re in and the role you want, the job market, at times, may seem more competitive, and almost impossible to navigate or penetrate. The good news is, there are ways that we as individuals and job-seekers can help stand out from the crowd and get us one step closer to our next dream job.

Today I’m going to share a few tips on how to use social selling to land your next job and why you should be doing it. If you’re in sales, you may already be familiar with social selling and how to use it in your day-to-day job. For those who may not be familiar with social selling, here’s a quick definition to get us all up to speed:

“Social selling is about leveraging your social network to find the right prospects, build trusted relationships, and ultimately, achieve your sales goals” (LinkedIn).

When we’re looking for a job, we can use this same technique to find the right prospects (or companies and hiring managers) and achieve our ‘sales goals’ or ‘land our next dream job’. Let’s look at social selling a little bit deeper. The four elements of social selling as outlined by LinkedIn are:

1. Establish your professional brand

2. Find the right people

3. Engage with insights

4. Build relationships

Below I will go through each of them in-depth and highlight how you as a job-seeker can use them to find your next role.

1. Establish your Professional Brand

I want you to think of the next company you want to work for and the next role you’re striving for. Now I want you to think of the hiring manager and executives of that company; who are those people? Once you’ve established that, imagine you’re one of them and they landed on your profile; what would they think? Would they think you’re the perfect fit for their company and that specific role? If the answer is no, or you’re not sure, then you probably have some work to do.

Here are a few things you can do to elevate your profile and professional brand:

• Update your photo to a professional headshot.

• Update your headline to summarize who you are as a professional and as an individual - don’t be afraid to be authentically you!

• Create a synopsis for yourself to include in the ‘about’ section. Make sure it’s in line with the headline summary you created and again, don’t be afraid to be authentically you! Your personality and individuality is what will make you stand out.

• Update each of your previous roles to highlight key results and achievements.

• Update your skills and ask for endorsements.

• Ask for recommendations from current and former colleagues (and while you’re at it, don’t be afraid to provide some recommendations for others too!)

• Update key accomplishments, certifications, non-professional experiences if they are relevant to the jobs you’re applying for or if they highlight your passions and personality.

• Add rich content, such as videos and images, that highlight you as a thought leader.

Pro tip: Use keywords throughout your profile that can be found in the job posting or on the company’s website. Additionally if you’re using LinkedIn jobs, there’s a section called “skills” in each posting where you can see the skills that are recommended for that position. Using these keywords throughout your profile will help you come up when recruiters perform candidate searches and increase your chances of standing out when your profile is viewed.

2. Find the Right People

There’s no better way to stand out from the hundreds of applications than connecting with the hiring manager directly. By doing a little bit of research about the job itself and using LinkedIn’s search function, you can quickly find the hiring manager or other senior executives who may be involved in the decision making process for the role you’re applying to. Don’t be afraid to connect with these individuals directly with a personalized note, or better yet, ask for a warm introduction if you have a common connection. When you get to the interview process, finding all the individuals who you would work with directly is important so you can prepare personalized questions based on their past experiences and personal interests.

3. Engage with Insights

If you frequent LinkedIn, one thing you may notice is the people that are constantly at the top of your feed when you log in. These people are here because they are posting frequently and are sharing relevant content that the LinkedIn network is interested in and interacting with. Once you’ve connected with your hiring managers and decision-makers, wouldn’t it be great if you were the first person on their feed? Consider posting once a day, or a few times a week, relevant content to demonstrate that you’re an expert in your field. Good content to post is educational, not self-promoting, and should ask a thought-provoking question to encourage others to comment and engage with your content.

Besides frequently posting, you should also spend time reading what others are sharing and engage with their content as well. Consider spending some time each day reading what your prospects are sharing, and using that information to reach out with something thought-provoking or a value add. Example: if you were applying at X company during the COVID19 pandemic, you may want to frequent their LinkedIn company page to understand what they’re doing as a response and what resources they may be providing to the general public or to their customers. This information may be useful in a future conversation or interview, it may be used to send a personalized inmail to a prospective hiring manager, or it may help you learn about the values of the company to understand if they align with yours as an individual.

4. Build Relationships

Once you’ve found the right people (see element 2), then what do you do next? Sometimes you find the hiring manager, send a connection request, they connect with you but don’t respond right away; perhaps they recently filled the position with another candidate; or maybe they just aren’t hiring for your role right now. That doesn’t mean you should stop building your relationship. As a part of their network, you want to be continuously adding value to them as an individual or as a business. Continue to share content that would be interesting to them and touch base when you read exciting company updates or if they get a promotion. Today may not be the right day for you to get that job, but you never know when they will be hiring again, or if your prospect will go to another company that you may apply to in the future.

As you can see, social selling isn’t just for selling products and services, but it’s also important to build your professional brand and demonstrate why you’re the best candidate for your dream job.

Have more tips and tricks around job hunting on LinkedIn? Have questions around your professional brand? Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn :)

Happy hunting!