New college graduates are embracing social media at a higher rate than their 2011 and 2010 peers, a new study shows.
Approximately 41 percent of 2012 college graduates are using social media to look for a job, reports the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). Students are most likely to use social networking to connect with potential employers, but students are also nearly as likely to use social media as a means for actually researching employers as well.
Each year, social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are becoming an increasingly popular option for graduates looking to gain information about employers. Nearly one fourth of 2012 grads reported using it as a research tool, up from 17 percent in 2011 and 15 percent among 2010 grads. Seniors reported Facebook and LinkedIn as the most popular social networking sites for their job search.
“Students are using [social media] to seek out salary and compensation information, job descriptions, and information about the employer’s training and development programs,” says Marilyn Mackes, NACE executive director.
In a world where most college graduates are using these sites anyway, it makes sense to optimize them for the job search as well. NACE began tracking the use of these networks as a job search tool in 2008, and their use has grown steadily since then. In fact, only seven percent of the graduating class of 2008 reported interacting with an employer via social sites, and more than half said they didn’t notice employer ads on social networking sites. Today, these numbers have changed exponentially.
“Unlike students four years ago who were unclear about the use of social media in the job search, today’s students see it as a viable tool to gather employer information,” says Mackes.
The results come from NACE’s 2012 Student Survey, in which nearly 48,000 college students nationwide responded.
