What a Growing Global Social Networking Audience Means to You

More than ever, people are using social media to find jobs, according to a recent study by Jobvite Inc., a California-based social-recruiting software maker.

In 2011, 22 million Americans found work through their contacts via Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter accounts. That compares to 14.4 million who found work the same way in 2010.

If such a large group of people have found work through their social media contacts this past year, why can’t you be one of them?

One in 6 found work through social networking; of those, 83 percent credited Facebook – generally regarded as a personal social-networking site – for their success. That compared with 46 percent for LinkedIn and 36 percent for Twitter. –SFGate.com

Couple these statistics with the growing number of people in Europe accessing social networking sites on their mobile devices, and freelancers have cause to celebrate.

Market research company comScore has found that in September 55 million uses in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K. accessed social networking sites or blogs on their mobile devices.

Twitter and LinkedIn more than doubled its audiences, but Facebook is still the biggest by a wide margin. Facebook’s audience grew from about 25 million to more than 39 million. That compares to 8.6 million users for Twitter and 2.2 million users for LinkedIn, according to comScore’s data. –PCWorld

What does this mean? If you are a freelancer, it means you should be leveraging your social networking sites to your advantage. It means you should start building an engaged audience on your blog. It means that a completely new continent is becoming obsessed with networking with others from their pockets and purses.

Leveraging Your Social Media Channels

With LinkedIn more than doubling its European audience, according to the study by comScore, it’s high time you learned how to leverage that social media outlet to your advantage to find freelance work.

I suggest downloading a copy of Susan Johnston’s guide on LinkedIn called LinkedIn and Lovin’ It. “Although LinkedIn is a fantastic platform for freelancers and other creative professionals, I noticed that much of the information on LinkedIn is geared towards job-seekers. So, I decided to create my own guide specifically tailored to people who consult, freelance, or own a business,” Susan writes.

My alma mater’s LinkedIn alumni page (which gets sent to me once a week) always has job openings at the bottom. It’s a good way to stay in touch and network with a large selection of people that I have something in common with—we all went to NYU. Plus, I don’t live in an area with an alumni group, so staying in touch online is the best way I have found to network with a group of people that live all over the world, and find freelance jobs that would otherwise be outside my reach.

We’d love to hear your success stories, so leave a comment below on freelance jobs you have secured through Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn below. What has been effective for you with networking and landing clients through social media?

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