Melbourne: Your popularity on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn may help you bag a job as companies are increasingly looking for well-connected and influential people, experts say.

Digital experts say social media and recruitment now largely go hand in hand.

While at the most basic level, companies check up on prospective employees to see if they make unsavory postings online, they are also using LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to find new employees - both by listing opportunities and by increasing the chatter between recruiters and the people looking for job.

"Social media has become an essential part of any organization’s recruitment strategy. It is easier to generate talent through social media. A lot easier than it was four or five years ago," said Hays Recruitment New Zealand managing director Jason Walker.

Walker said in a recent survey of 270 employers across New Zealand the company found that 64 percent of employers used LinkedIn to find new employees, 50 percent used Facebook and 10 per cent used Twitter.

Of those looking for jobs 74 percent use LinkedIn, 24 percent used Facebook, and 7 percent used Twitter, Fairfax NZ news reported.

Tom Bates, the social influence director for digital strategists Contagion, said employers would look at a prospective employee's social media presence to validate what the candidate was saying about their online profile.

"If someone says that they are influential and they are not even on Twitter, or don't use social media well, then they are not being authentic or honest," Bates said.

"When I am recruiting I look first and foremost on LinkedIn. I look at the experience people have, their connections, because it gives a really open, transparent, easy way to source relevant people," Bates added.

"I also look at all their other social media identities to get more of a sense of who they are, outside of the one-hour interview I may have with them. I look at their Facebook and Twitter and potentially Instagram and beyond to make sure there is a good cultural fit," Bates said.

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