When you’re ready to switch to fashion retail or move to the next level of your career, there are many options available to help you find your next dream position. Anyone seeking a position in fashion retail today will be faced with an intensely competitive candidate pool, in addition to resume analysis by hiring managers.
What does this mean to you as a job seeker? It means being able to stand out among the rest as the best person for the job. A presence on social media can definitely help you to do this, but, in order to be successful, it must be done right.
Social Media as an Untapped Resource
It’s true that over three billion social media users connect with each other on a daily basis. Many of these users, however, see social media as a way to stay connected with family and friends and to post about their personal lives.
There are also many who use social media for professional reasons. Interestingly, job recruiters are more frequently turning to the social media pages of prospective candidates to help them make hiring decisions.
Top 3 Social Media Networks
No two social media networks are alike. That’s why it’s important to consider the best practices and unique characteristics of each. The three most common social media networks are Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Twitter – the Conversational Platform
Twitter not only allows customers to engage directly with their favorite brands; it also allows for direct interaction with retail and e-commerce recruiting firms. You can find out about job openings, learn more about company culture, and even learn what customers think of the companies you are considering applying to. Who knew 140 characters could be so powerful?
Of course, if you plan to use Twitter to get a great job in fashion retail, you’ll definitely want to ensure that you target your tweets to topics that will be relevant to the companies you want a job with. How do you do this? By studying the hashtags and keywords others in your industry use, and incorporating them into your own tweets, retweets, and replies.
Making the Most of It
Ensure you’ve linked your Twitter account to your LinkedIn profile. This will help to lead hiring managers to your long list of qualifications. You can also use Twitter to find job listings by entering a job title or the #jobs, #jobseeker, or #hiring hashtags into its search engine.
There are also many individual accounts which post jobs to Twitter, so be sure that you’re following these. Finally, you can also follow the Twitter pages of job boards.
LinkedIn – a Platform for Professionals
LinkedIn, a social media platform that targets both hiring managers and professionals is the recommendation of many a recruiting company. Why? Because of the fact that so many recruiters hire directly through the platform. Not only that, but LinkedIn also allows recruiters the opportunity to screen candidates, as well as search for and contact them.
The great thing about LinkedIn is that you can get the attention of e-commerce job recruitment agencies without having to have separate profiles. However, you will need to do some work to make your profile attractive to recruiters.
You can achieve this by collecting colleague and client recommendations and then adding your own contributions to the experience and qualifications they’ve recommended you for.
On the other side of things, you can also use LinkedIn to get in touch with hiring managers and learn more about the hiring process. This platform can also be incredibly useful where it comes to interviews, allowing you to learn more about what will happen at your appointment.
Making the Most of It
To be sure that hiring managers are impressed by what they see, your profile should be up to date and complete. You’ll want to upload a recent and professional-looking photo and compose a concise personal summary which highlights what you’ve accomplished and reveals what position you are looking to be hired for.
Your participation in job search and industry groups by answering questions is another great way to make connections that can lead to a new career.
Facebook – Increasingly Popular Job Seekers
Facebook, once a mecca for high school and college users, has transformed to become an incredibly popular platform for job seekers. If you are joining Facebook for the purpose of getting a job, then all that’s needed is to do like you would elsewhere: post about events and topics that are industry-specific.
If you’ve had a profile for many years, however, there is one thing that a fashion recruitment agency will prefer that you weed out: any content that they may find questionable.
You can also use your privacy settings to ensure that only friends and family see your personal posts and pictures. Information to make public for hiring managers includes your professional skills, location, and employment information.
Making the Most of It
Searching for the companies you admire and then “liking” them is a great way to stay up to date on their happenings, as well as to connect with their hiring staff. You may also find professional connections at the page of your high school, college, or university.
Social Media Profiles: Personal or Professional?
Some career experts are of the opinion that if you are using social media to attract recruiters for your first or next fashion retail position, that you should keep your personal and professional profiles separate. There are many benefits to doing this.
Industry-Specific
With two profiles, you can create a professional page that’s geared toward fashion retail, with posts about fashion news, designer shows, and other relevant information. Before long, you will have a profile that’s full of news, tips, and tricks centered around the fashion industry. This can speak volumes to a recruiter about your passion for the industry and your knowledge about all things related to fashion.
Free Expression
Another benefit of having separate personal and business profiles is that you can still be free to express yourself to your friends and family. Of course, you can also be yourself on your business profile—and should be. Recruiters want to know more about your personality so they can ensure a good fit into their company culture.
All Eyes on You
Of course, you must also consider the fact that, regardless whether your profile is personal or business, the information you share has a good chance of being seen by a recruiter. Social media is great for sharing, but it’s a good idea to remember that it is not always private. Your list of contacts may share what you post from either of your profiles, and those shares could be seen by recruiters.
Mind What You Post
The fact is that no matter what you choose to post or delete, it will live forever. There are many ways to recover deleted information and, if that information isn’t positive, your chances of being hired by that recruiter who just visited your page can be greatly reduced.
Other Tips for Job Hunting Using Social Media
If you want to make your social media profile attractive, the first step is to not reinvent the wheel. Instead of guessing what hiring managers like about a profile, seek out the profiles of other fashion industry professionals.
Take notes on how they present themselves, as well as which social media networks they have profiles on. You’ll also want to take a look at what kind of information they’ve chosen to post and that which they’ve included in their profile.
Something to remember is that your professional social media presence is your brand. That means being consistent about what you post and share across all of the platforms you’re using to find a job.
Utilizing social media is an important thing to do if you’re seeking a job in the fashion retail industry. It not only provides a way to expand your professional network but also shows hiring managers that you are fluent in current technologies, while increasing the potential for several career opportunities and recruiting managers to find you.
