Social media is often the place people go to relax or let off steam but it is now becoming the new battleground for job hunters and recruiters. Gone are the days where the only place to find new jobs is the local paper or a generic online job board site. These days you can find your next role using Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook instead.

Recruiters are also using social to get to the candidates they want and quickly. Using everything from Twitter hashtags to targeted ads on Facebook to appeal to a specific audience group, recruiters are making their job easier by finding the right people for the right jobs through social media.

But can you really leverage your social graph and pick up your next job through a site like Facebook? How about Twitter? Are you a recruiter who wants to use social to your advantage? This helpful guide will show you what can be done to make social media a key element of finding a job, or getting the right candidate you need.

To maximise the effort you put in, concentrate on the big three social networks. Here are our tips for job hunters and recruiters:

LinkedIn

Home to over 300 million users globally, LinkedIn is the most business-oriented social network of the three social networks. Maximise your time on LinkedIn by working on the following:

Make sure your information is up to date, making sure to include any recent promotions at work, or any awards or accreditations you’ve recently earned.

Increase connections by connecting your address book to LinkedIn, exposing you to more job and networking opportunities.

Sharing content relevant to your role in the industry shows that you care about your job and career, which is an attractive proposition to prospective employers.

Recruiters trying to source a specific type of candidate for a role should look at members in groups or companies relevant to the role they are trying to fill.


Facebook

Perhaps better known for baby pictures, professionals are now using Facebook to engage with the brands that they like, showcasing personal and professional skills and much more.

Get the most out of Facebook by working on the following:

Promote your skills and experience, add any qualifications and information about your past jobs and current position to your profile in the ‘Work and Education’ section.

Make your profile public to potential employers what interests and excites you. This also encourages discussion, giving you further opportunities to showcase your talents.

Stay up to date. Ensuring all your information is up to date and correct is incredibly important and key when employers are looking at your information.

Recruiters should create targeted ads to engage with specific audience groups. Advertise to specific age groups, people who have graduated from university, with specific interests, even people in certain locations; whatever you can do to get the role you’re trying to fill in front of the right people.

Twitter

One of the fastest growing social networks around, recruiters, companies and employees use Twitter every day to promote themselves, search for and post jobs, and connect with others.

Here are a few tips to make sure your tweets stand out from the crowd:

Follow relevant recruiters, companies whose work you admire, and relevant people from the industry you work in. As a real-time social network, by following these people you’ll see news about a new job or opportunity as soon as it becomes available.

Use hashtags to make sure your tweets filter into specific searches is one of the most powerful features of Twitter. Try searching #job, or #jobsearch to see the thousands of people posting new jobs every day.

Tweet often about your passions - professional or personal - engaging in conversation with people from your industry gives prospective employers a great view of who you are as a potential employee.

As a recruiter, use the platform effectively, and you’ll have more success. There’s no point in tweeting about job vacancies if you only have three followers. Use Twitter as it’s meant to be used; follow people, engage with users, and show your personality.

Following hashtags for the industry you’re trying to recruit for is a great way of finding relevant people, and keeping up with the latest industry news and events.

Whether you’re looking for work, or you’re a recruiter looking for a suitable candidate, using our tips on social media should make your search more fruitful.

These helpful tips for both recruiting and looking for jobs was created by Online Resourcing, an expert in online recruitment.