A question from the field . . . “Should you engage with potential employers on social platforms?”
It’s a bit complicated, but here’s my take:
- DO follow them on Twitter if they are clearly a Twitter user (as a person, not a corporate account). If they’re following many and being followed, as well as contributing to the conversation, then they are engaged and will welcome an additional follower.
- DON’T follow them on Twitter if they don’t tweet or have few or no followers. I’m not sure why they’re there and neither are they.
- DO follow them if it’s a corporate account designed to be a news stream about the company and/or its industry. That’s why it’s there.
- DO connect with them on LinkedIn if you know one another and have worked together or been connected by a business network. Chances are, if you’re to the interview stage, this is someone already in your network.
- DON’T send them a LinkedIn invitation if they’re not on LinkedIn. (Why do you want this job, again?)
- DON’T friend them on Facebook. That’s a little weird if you don’t know each other. It is, of course, fine, if you’re already friends in another way.
- DO “like” the organization’s page.
What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with any of these?
some good sound tips! I think you’ve pretty much hit it across the board. I think it’s important to follow the business on their Twitter account and Facebook business page, because it just helps in your research of the company. And, if they happen to notice, it even shows a certain level of interest!
@KenMueller I forgot to mention that you can also follow a business on LinkedIn, a fairly new feature but would be valuable to a prospective employee.