Today’s recruiters (the good ones, anyway) understand the power of social recruiting. They know that, to attract the top talent, they need to do more than spamming people with job posts. They have to look beyond LinkedIn. In fact, they often use tools most of us haven’t even heard of before to get the right leads to the right people.
But why should they have all the fun?
If you’re looking for a new gig, these five recruiter-approved Chrome extensions should be part of your search.
Of course, it goes without saying that you should already be playing the social game—retweeting, commenting, +1ing, sharing, and generally building positive, two-way relationships online.
But once you’ve done that? These five extensions will supercharge your social networking all the way to that dream job.
1. Discoverly
Discoverly is often used by recruiters to increase referrals from friends and employees—and you can use it to see which of your contacts might be the key to your next gig.
Once installed, head to a contact or potential contact on LinkedIn, and Discoverly will tell you if you have mutual Facebook friends. As your friends already trust you, they are perfect to hit up for an introduction!
It works the other way, too—you can see your Facebook friends’ work info on their pages. And if any of your friends are working in your target industry or company, it’s definitely worth seeing if they could connect you to someone back on more formal LinkedIn.
2. Connect6
Currently in beta, Connect6 People Discovery gives you rich online profile details across many sites.
If, for example, you wanted to work in IT at Amazon, you could run a search for technical recruiters on LinkedIn, and then click the 6˙ icon to activate the extension.
Hovering on the 6˙s that appear next to every name will give you access to people’s rich profiles.
You don’t need to click through to their LinkedIn profile to see all of their information—including their contact details, which are free while the extension is still in beta. You can also check out the other platforms they’re active on and engage with them there.
For example, you could:
- Follow Ryan on Twitter, add him to a list so you don’t lose him, and be sure to RT or comment on a few tweets (spacing these out for impact).
- See if you have mutual Facebook friends.
- Add Ryan to your Google+ circles and +1 a post or two.
- Join his Meetup and meet him in person.
Handy, right?
3. Connectifier
Many recruiters have been raving about Connectifier, and looking at Ryan’s profile, it’s easy to see why.
Currently free to use, Connectifier reveals more places that Ryan hangs out, more contact details, and links to his blog. Caveat: It doesn’t yet work on Facebook, so I’d use it with Connect6 and Discoverly to ensure you see the full picture.
4. Leaf
Leaf gives you rich data on Twitter users, stuff that’s handy to know before you follow someone. In mine below, you can see how often I tweet, the hashtags I use, and my Klout score (though I take that with a grain of salt!).
You’ll want to pay particular attention to growth: If someone’s follower base is growing, he or she is likely sharing and engaging well. And there’s no point following someone who isn’t tweeting!
Leaf has some exciting improvements coming up, too, including insights into LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook, and Instagram, so it’s going to become one very useful extension.
5. Buffer
Ok, so Buffer’s Chrome extension isn’t for snooping out more information on contacts and hiring managers, but it’s almost more important.
You want to be followed back, right?
As mentioned above, you want to become known, liked, and trusted, and Buffer’s scheduling is perfect for helping you do that!
If you want to really amp up your social job search and maximize your return, share content that shows off your knowledge and talent. Spend 10 minutes each morning gathering articles around your area of expertise and interest, then stack your Buffer and let it work its magic.
For example, here is a recent post from The Muse that will interest my followers. I clicked the Buffer extension, added my own touch and a few hashtags, chose my social sites, and it’ll now drop out later. Easy!
Start using these extensions, and you’ll be putting your social job search on full voltage!