This document discusses how social media can be used for employment purposes. It provides tips on using LinkedIn and Twitter to market yourself to potential employers, such as customizing your profiles, following relevant contacts, and demonstrating your expertise in your industry. Employers are increasingly using social media in the hiring process, so candidates need to be aware of curating a positive digital footprint and using networking strategies to enhance their job search.

1. Social media and employment
Kate Turner
23 July 2014

2. Does Social Media have the power to change the world? By the School of International Development,
University of East Anglia, UK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uppg_2nGo54&feature=youtu.be

3. What do you think about social
media?

4. Today’s workshop
• What is social media?
• Why use social media?
• How can social media help you?

5. What social media do you use?

6. What is social media?
• interaction among people in which they create, share, and/or exchange information
and ideas in virtual communities and networks
• social media depend on mobile and web-based technologies to create highly
interactive platforms through which individuals and communities share, co-create,
discuss, and modify user-generated content – it is PARTICIPATORY.
• For example - social platforms like Wikipedia or Twitter have completely changed
the way to consume and interact with information. Services like YouTube or
Facebook also transformed the way we entertain ourselves.
• Social media is free and is therefore very accessible.
• It can help to improve trust, transparency and accountability as you able to
communicate more directly with your supporters.
• Adds more ‘personality’ to your brand or organisation.
• The success of social media relies on regular, relevant and engaging content.
“the web is social media, and social media is the web”

7. Why do organisations use social
media?
An organization can use social media
• to create a bigger identity and more support for DPOs
and their work
• create relationships with people including members
or other key stakeholders who might not otherwise
know about the organization’s activities, services,
projects or what it represents – politicians, persons
with disabilities, donors, other DPOs
• to share information and persuade a wider audience to
support your cause.

8. Why do you use social media?
• Write down 5 reasons why you use or do not
use social media

9. Why do people use social media?
• Social Interaction
• Information Seeking
• Passing Time
• Entertainment
• Relaxation
• Expression Of
Opinions
• Things To Talk About
• Convenience.
• Sharing Information.
• Knowing About
Others
• Employment
opportunities
• Networking

10. Creating connections and gathering
advocates
For people with disabilities and disabilities persons organisations, social media
can be especially helpful with:
• Self-information - access to the latest news. It is a great way to keep up
on your industry and any legislation or news related to living with a
disability such as government announcements, UN initiatives
• Like-minded networking. There are online groups and forums where you
can seek and receive advice and expertise.
• Disability awareness. Using social media is also an excellent opportunity
to spread awareness about the issues people with disabilities face on a daily
basis in Rwanda.
• And…. Job opportunities

11. An introduction to two social media
Linkedin
Twitter
Facebook

12. Linkedin
• LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking service
• As of June 2013, LinkedIn reports more than 259 million acquired users in
more than 200 countries and territories.
• The basic functionality of LinkedIn allows users (workers and employers)
to create profiles and "connections" to each other in an online social
network which may represent real-world professional relationships.

14. Why use Linkedin?
You can
• Obtain introductions to the connections of connections
• find jobs, people and business opportunities recommended by someone in
one's contact network.
• see employers who list jobs and search for potential candidates.
• can review the profile of hiring managers and discover which of their
existing contacts can introduce them.
• Post your own photos and view photos of others to aid in identification.
• follow different companies and can receive notifications about the new
joining. Users can save (i.e. bookmark) jobs that they would like to apply
for.
• can "like" and "congratulate" each other's updates and new employments.
• can see who has visited your profile page.

15. What should your Linkedin profile
include?
• Name
• Qualifications and education
• Summary – who you are, what your experience
is and your skills (no more than 250 words)
• Languages you speak
• Skills you have
• Volunteer experience
• Work experience
• Endorsements from your contacts

17. Top tips for your Linkedin profile
• Your profile is not a resume or CV. Write as if you are having a
conversation with someone. Inject your personality. Let people know your
values and passions. In your summary, discuss what you do outside of
work. You want people to want to know you.
• Join groups related to your area of expertise, industry, alumni, passions,
social causes, and other aspects of your identity. This gives you access to
more people who matter to your brand.
• Know the top five strengths for which you want to be recognized and use
them in your profile – repeatedly. If your top skill is project management,
describe your project management proficiency in your summary as well as
in multiple experience descriptions. This will help the right audience find
you.
• Make sure your headshot is high quality, with good lighting and ultra-sharp
focus. LinkedIn is not the place to run a casual snapshot.
• Make sure you write in clear simple English, with no spelling mistakes. If
you are not sure, write it in MS Word first and then copy and paste it.

18. Writing your introductory profile
• This is VERY important!
• Don’t include sweeping terms of self-praise,
like “team player,” “go-getter” and “self-
motivated.”
• Rather describe your accomplishments
specifically with words like “improved,”
“created” and “increased” and a specific
explanation of exactly what you did, including
numbers whenever possible.

19. The right language
The worst words to use in your profile
1. Go-getter
2. Think outside of the box
3. Synergy
4. Go-to person
5. Thought leadership
6. Value add
7. Results-driven
8. Team player
9. Bottom-line
10. Hard worker
11. Strategic thinker
12. Dynamic
13. Self-motivate
14. Detail-oriented
15. Proactively
16. Track record
The best words to use in your profile
1. Achieved
2. Improved
3. Trained/mentored
4. Managed
5. Created
6. Resolved
7. Volunteered
8. Influenced
9. Increased/decreased
10. Ideas
11. Negotiated
12. Launched
13. Revenue/profits
14. Under budget
15. Won

20. Write your summary
• You have 15 minutes to write down your
summary.
• Think about what employers want to know
about you
• What are your key skills and achievements?

21. Twitter
• Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging
service that enables users to send and read "tweets", which are
text messages limited to 140 characters.
• Similar to a SMS text message but it is on the internet and can
be read by anyone. Registered users can read and post tweets.
• It is instant - works in ‘real-time’
• Use hashtags # to group messages together
• You can “follow” or be “followed”
• Your profile starts with @ - eg @NUDOR_RW and you can
‘mention’ people in your tweets

22. Why use twitter?
• 500 million registered users in
2012, who posted 340 million
tweets per day.
• Twitter is now one of the ten
most-visited websites, and has
been described as "the SMS of the
Internet
• High twitter usage in Rwanda –
research in 2012 showed that
Rwanda is 7th largest tweeter in
Africa
• High profile leaders and media
use twitter in Rwanda
• Connecting your organisation to
other DPOs, persons with
disabilities

23. What should you use twitter for?
• Use it to broadcast your
opinion, news or links other
websites such as news
articles, blogs, videos
• Find out relevant industry
information
• Find out about potential
employers
• Demonstrate your
knowledge and interest in
the area

24. Number of
your tweets
People who
you follow
People who
follow you
Suggestions
of who you
should
follow
“Trends” –
what people
are talking
about
Live feed of
tweets

25. Tips on how to use twitter effectively
1. Have a good biography - 160 characters
• Personal account – list your profession, interests and location. Have a clear,
professional and up to date photograph
• Organisational account – list the full name of the organisation, its mission and location.
Provide your website address. The picture should be the organisational logo.
2. Be selective when following – only follow relevant profiles that will deliver
relevant information to your timeline.
3. Credit your sources – if you share some information or retweet a post, make
sure you acknowledge the source such as “via @user”. It will bring a lot of
appreciation from the person you retweet and is also important to maintaining
credibility.
4. Make use of hashtags - hashtags (#) facilitate searching the information you’re
looking for within seconds. Using hashtags increases a user’s visibility in a
particular area of discussion and increases the number of followers from a
specific domain.

26. 5. Have a focus – if you are a DPO, you should be tweeting about disability and
issues around improving human rights, NOT the latest football scores. I t can put
off people following you.
6. Engage - Twitter is a two-way street. You should engage and interact with other
users. This helps build a relationship with other users and creates a network for
you. It is very easy to interact with somebody who already replied to you or
retweeted you, so don’t hesitate to do it. Take a few seconds to answer, because
you might get a lot in return for it.
7. Don’t be a RT machine - You need to provide content, don’t just RT content from
other people. Why would somebody follow you instead of the source you retweet 5
times per day?
8. Avoid arguments - Getting involved in unnecessary arguments will never get you
far - If amends need to be taken, then take them using the DM option or over e-
mail, not publicly on Twitter. To ensure you don’t get caught in such situations,
avoid tweeting on hot topics regarding a person’s religion, relationships, career,
professional or personal issues and so on. Never tweet something that you wouldn’t
be comfortable saying publically.

27. 9. Don’t ask to be followed - If you can’t convince someone to follow your profile
with your bio and tweets, they will never follow you just because you ask them
to.
10. Do not delete tweets - apologizing is always better than deleting a tweet,
because it will show people you can accept your mistakes and take
responsibility for them.
11. Be responsive - Followers will many times provide company profiles with
feedback. It is an asset for a company profile to be able to respond properly to
feedback.
12. Don’t spam - Spamming is the worst thing a organisation’s Twitter profile can
do. None of us like spam and most of us stop following any profile that fills our
timeline with spam instantly. Regardless of how much you want to have more
followers, do not spam – it can create a lot of damage from which you may never
recover from.
13. No tweeting about yourself on a organizational account – followers of an
organization are interested in the organization, not not the person behind the
profile. Making personal updates on a company profile is not a good idea.

28. Hashtags
• #Kwibuka20
• #FF
• #IDPD2013
• #ndiumunyarwanda
• #disABILITY
• #IDPD2013

29. A good biography
Job title
and skills
Your
activities
Your
website
Your logo
Organization
description Your
website
Your
activities
Your
location

30. Who to follow?
• International agencies: @UN_Enable, @UN, @UNICEF
• INGOs and NGOs: @HI_UK, @PlanGlobal
• Donors: @DFID_UK @VSO_Intl
• Rwandan DPOs: @RNUDRwanda
• Government: @Rwandalocalgov
• Media: @Igihe
• Influential people: @DonaldKaberuka
• Employers
•Who else should you follow?

31. Facebook
• Free platform to upload
video, photos and more
detailed information
• Create a network of people
with an interest in your work
• Huge number of users
• You can ‘like’ organisations

32. RNUD facebook page
News and campaigns
“UN International Human Rights Day 2013”
Stories and updates
Number of supporters
Organisational details

33. NUDOR ‘likes’ VSO Rwanda
Developing your networks

34. Using social media to market ourselves
• Digital marketing principles can now be
applied to ourselves to attract potential
employers
• There are over 39 million students and recent
college graduates on LinkedIn. They are
LinkedIn's fastest-growing demographic.

35. What are employers doing?
• Recruiters use social media in the hiring
process
• Recruiters can be positively influenced by a
candidate’s social network profile
• However they can also be negatively
influenced by a candidate’s inappropraite use
of social media.
• The best candidates can be identified and
headhunted by social media through
developing relationships

36. The importance of your digital
footprint
• What people and employers read
about you is really important
• Would you want your prospective
employer to see your facebook
photos?
• What impression would they get?
• If you don’t want something to
cause you embarrassment in the
future, then it’s a good idea to be
careful about how you represent
yourself on social media.

37. Is this a good facebook photo?

38. BBC News: 8/7/2010
BBC News:13/12/2012
Independent: 22/10/2013

39. Finding employment
• Facebook: People you know
• Linkedin: People I professionally know
• Twitter: People I don’t know

40. Tell the world that you are looking
for a job!
• Facebook: tell friends and family
• Linkedin:
– Tell previous colleagues
– Targeted personal messages
– Place status updates
– Change your headline
– Tell groups
• Twitter:
– @Mention to followers
– #the job/employer you want

41. • Linkedin
– Research company profile
– Find profiles of company employees
– Find profiles of company recruiters
• Twitter
– What is the company doing?
– What does the company care about?

42. Demonstrate your interest and
expertise
• Twitter
– Tweet interesting stuff
– Interact with other stakeholders
• Linkedin
– Join relevant groups and post interesting updates
and information

43. Network before you need it
• Linkedin
– Build a network before you need it
– Join groups – be proactive – be engaged
• Twitter
– Engage
– Relevant tweets can lead to a conversation or
direct reply from an employer