Landing a job is getting harder by the day, thanks to the economy that doesn’t seem to be getting any better. Add break neck competition to it and you’ve got a situation which even a college degree and years of experience cannot deal with. However, even though things are looking pretty bleak enploymentwise, people have found a new way to survive and thrive amid all the chaos. Any guesses about what the new way could be? You guessed it right – social media, it is! As more and more corporations join the social media bandwagon (with their Twitter accounts and Facebook pages), job hunters are increasingly realizing how important it is to add social media to their job searching tool bag.

So what exactly do these job hunters do on social media? Networking, getting new job leads, and promoting and showcasing resumes are just some of the many things they do with help from sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. If you’d like to know more, here are some interesting statistics regarding using social media for job search found by a recent Jobvite survey:

  • 1 in 6 workers use social media to get hired and 16% of employees owe one to online social network for their current jobs. According to the survey, 18.4 million Americans say Facebook got them their current jobs while Twitter and LinkedIn get the credit from 10.2 million and 8 million people respectively
  • Almost 90% of job seekers have a profile on a social media site and 54% of job seekers use Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn to find jobs.
  • In the last 12 months, 50% of job seekers used Facebook, 25% used Twitter, and 36% used LinkedIn to look for a job.

As we’ve told you already, job seeking isn’t the only thing job hunters do with Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. The survey has revealed that 20% of Facebook users put professional info in their profile in the last year, Twitter saw 8% of its job-hunting users do the same and the percentage was 15 for LinkedIn. Likewise, the percentage of job hunters who got a job referral via Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn was 16%, 6% and 9% respectively.

With so much to gain from being on social media sites and using them for job search, don’t you think it’s about time you created a profile of your own? And while you are at it, do try to become a super social seeker (Super social job seekers are those with more than 150 contacts on a given network), because the survey has also revealed that 40% of job seekers are super social on one of their sites and over 1 in 4 super social seekers found a job through social networks.

Once you become a super social, do remember to use these handy tips:

  • Facebook users post “Notes” to describe your situation and job interests. They stay in friends’ feeds longer than status updates.
  • Twitter users should follow companies they’d like to work for and their employees, reach out to them and inquire about jobs. And try to use a single profile picture across multiple sites; it makes you look memorable and consistent.

Now that you have so much info and useful tips, go ahead and land the job you’ve always wanted. Happy job hunting!