The Value of Following a Social Media Schedule
The right social media activity can be pivotal before and during a job search. If you are consistent and stick to a social media schedule.
Sporadic bursts of activity will not help you to grow an engaged audience. You won’t be front of mind for any roles that come up in your network, and you certainly won’t benefit from the magic of reciprocation if you are not consistently helping others.
You need to create (and stick to) a social media schedule.
Due to the unpredictable nature of a job search, nailing down a daily 20/30-minute window for your job search is essential to make sure that it happens, no matter what. It doesn’t matter when you do this, although you should certainly be mindful of when you choose to share individual pieces of content that you wish to be visible to your network (first thing in the morning or mid-morning tends to work well on a weekday).
Certain parts of your activity can be automated in advance (such as sharing posts) if you are busy with other job search activities. Applications such as Hootsuite, Buffer or Sprout enable you to manage your socials easily.
The tricky thing about being regular in your social media schedule is that it takes effort.
Effort that will be tough to maintain. Why?
Social media discipline
Because the impact of social media activity is not always visible. You never know who sees your posts and who may talk to whom in the background. The most important thing is to remember this:
“Social media activity is a funnel. What you put in equates to what you get out. Even when what you get out may not surface for months or even years later. But you need to believe. Too many people have benefited before you for you not to. Activity = results. Believe.”
So long as you are efficient with your time on social media during your job search (don’t get distracted by the feed), you should aim to spend a set amount of time on it every day. No more, no less. Schedule it properly.
There is another hidden benefit of regular social activity during a job search. The daily growth of followers and connections, along with the support from your network on the posts, will bring a daily dopamine hit. Any hint of positivity in a job search is no bad thing.
Most of your potential future bosses will spend some time on LinkedIn this week. Hopefully, you are connected with many of them. While hassling them and sliding into their DMs unannounced isn’t always a great idea, popping up in their feed regularly can only lead to positive opportunities. You just have to keep doing it.
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This blog is shared with Job Seeker Duetists.
Written by former recruitment ghostwriter Paul Drury (not AI).