While Australian dive deeply into social media for their personal lives, they aren’t using their online prowess nearly as much to advance their careers, recent research suggests.
According to career trends research released in December by the professional networking site LinkedIn, 60% of members surveyed don’t use social media channels to expand their careers, though 87% believe an online profile will boost their professional identity and careers.
“The majority of respondents cited ex-bosses and past colleagues as the most effective sources in helping them to secure a new job, proving the huge power of building a strong professional network,” said Clifford Rosenberg, managing director of LinkedIn Australia and New Zealand. “We use social media skillfully in our personal lives and need to learn to translate this into our professional lives”
Indeed, according to Nielsen 2010 Social Media Report, more than 9 million Australians now interact via social networks.
More insight from the LinkedIn career trends report:
- Most professionals are eager to advance their career, with 84% interested in job opportunities and 57% willing to be contacted for jobs via social networks. However, only 3% said they would be comfortable being approached for jobs via Facebook and 1% via Twitter.
- A strong majority of professionals (83%) can access some or all social media websites at work. LinkedIn was the most accessible website (95%) followed by Facebook (70%) and Twitter (59%).
- Among people actively seeking job opportunities, only a quarter were successful in changing jobs, demonstrating the need for them to tap their networks to gain better results from their job search activity.
“This is really a call to action for professionals to re-address their use of social networks and begin to reap as many rewards from networking professionally as they do personally,” Rosenberg said.
