Investing a little time in developing your profile on social media will ensure that you maintain a relevant online presence. Social media can provide you with an inexpensive way to promote yourself and grow your network. Your social media profiles can be seen as an online interactive resume that gives you greater choice in how you represent yourself and tell your story. In this article Umbrella Exchange looks at how contractors can use the power of social media to keep themselves competitive.

What can clients learn from your social media profiles?

Clients and recruitment agencies will often use social media platforms to search for contractors for specific projects, or to further research existing applications they’ve received. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram, your social media profiles can provide agencies with the information that they’re looking for. By viewing your social media profile it’s possible for agencies and clients to:

• View examples of your work
• Gain insight into your interests and values
• Get a good idea of your work history
• Read references and recommendations
• Access your professional contact information
• Read up-to-the-minute information about projects you’re working on

How can contractors use social media to raise their professional profile?

Social media marketing works on the premise that by growing your network, you increase the likelihood of reaching a wider audience. Each time someone connects with your profile, their whole network sees that activity, bringing you to the attention of potential new clients. While many platforms offer paid options that will give you access to increased advertising opportunities, most contractors will find that a free profile is sufficient for their needs. In order to make the most of social media networking, contractors should:

• Connect & Follow other users: Enter your email address to sync your contacts. Look up and get back in touch with old colleagues and anyone else who might be valuable in your professional network. You can also follow relevant companies so that their news and jobs will come up in your news feed.

• Introductions and recommendations: You can introduce colleagues and clients in order to strengthen their networks. Your connections can also write recommendations for your profile and endorse you for specific skills. This feature can provide powerful testaments for prospective clients and recruitment agencies.

• Join groups and contribute: A great way to meet and connect with new professionals is to join groups based on your professional industry. You can participate in discussions and publish content that highlights your professional expertise. Joining groups can also be a great way of learning about industry events where you can take the opportunity to network in person.

Telling your ‘story’ with a clear narrative structure

Many businesses are now turning to storytelling to promote their services. It’s often said that contractors are hired on the basis of their skills alone, but as the contracting market becomes more competitive, the need for contractors to distinguish themselves on more personal terms is inevitable. Giving your social media content a narrative structure can give a clearer, overall picture of your career.

While it’s not always advisable for contractors to post personal information about their families etc., posts featuring your latest work, industry events and things that inspire you offer the client and agency an instant insight into your world. When telling your story, you should remember that using both words and pictures can create a varied and interesting user experience.

How contractors can use LinkedIn

According to data published by LinkedIn, recruiters use the platform’s powerful search feature to find contractors for specific roles. In order to make sure your profile is optimised for recruitment searches, do some research into companies and jobs that relate to your sector. This should give you a good indication of the keywords and phrases to incorporate into your profile to ensure the content is targeted towards the right recruitment searches. Pay particular attention to your headline, which should clearly and concisely communicate your value with relevant information, such as your job title, industry, location and years of experience.

LinkedIn Jobs: LinkedIn will recommend specific jobs to you based on your current information. Contractors can self-identify via the preferences page in the Jobs tab by selecting ‘Contractor’ from the dropdown options. Contractors can also fill out the optional ‘job preferences’ to get better-tailored job listings.

Open Candidates Feature: The feature allows members to privately notify recruiters that they are interested in being contacted about new roles, without announcing this publically on their profile. Recruiters now have access to a new contract filter via LinkedIn’s Recruiter platform, allowing them to narrow their searches and target candidates based on this information.

How contractors can use Facebook

Facebook is an excellent tool for staying in contact with friends who might also be ex-colleagues. There’s growing evidence to suggest that when it comes to getting jobs, word-of-mouth referrals are a powerful advantage. Companies and agencies are frequently adding ‘refer a friend’ to their recruitment campaigns, realising that employees are a likely avenue for finding new talent.

You can also create a business page for yourself that’s a good alternative to a fully-fledged website. Business pages also help to keep your personal and professional content separate, which you should always keep in mind when posting your personal opinions and photographs. Facebook has moved to a "pay-to-play" model in order to promote your posts to a specific audience.

How contractors can benefit from Twitter

Twitter is a microblog site for posting real time status updates and breaking news. The updates or ‘tweets’ can be a maximum of 280 characters, making Twitter a good tool for concise bulletins that link to articles or general content on other sites. Use the hashtags (#) to follow conversations and topics that interest you, or add them to keywords in your own tweets so that these become searchable by other users.

Twitter is great for raising your profile and getting the word out about what you’re working on, or asking and answering questions. This opens up a dialogue with your followers. It’s also a great way to see what people are saying about your industry or to interact with a company you might be interested in working for. Most people use Twitter on their phones, making it a super fast link to your followers.

How contractors can use Instagram

The latest figures reveal that Instagram now has over 1billion monthly users, making it the fastest growing social media platform by a considerable margin. In 2018 the number of UK contractors on Instagram rose to 48%, compared to just 18% back in 2015. As one of the newer social media platform, using Instagram can place contractors ahead of the competition and provide them with a fast and creative means of promoting their professional activity.

Although well-crafted words remain a powerful marketing tool, pictures can be a more direct and self-explanatory form of communication, with research showing that user engagement is 58% higher on Instagram than any other social media. To maximise the impact of your snaps, consider these tips:

• Edit your pics using Instagram’s editing tools to make them look professional
• Be creative and try out interesting, eye-catching angles that give users a different perspective.

Hashtag it: Research shows that using a minimum of one hashtag per post can boost user engagement by up to 12.6%. Hashtags allow users to track trending stories and what’s going on in popular culture. A good tip is to watch out for popular trends and find a way to link your services to breaking news. By tagging your post with a hashtag, your post will be searchable by millions of Instagram users. Over time, you’ll see relationships between certain hashtags and your most popular posts, and this can help you decide which hashtags work best for you.

To speak to a member of our team about all your contracting options, call us on: 0203 393 3881