The emerging trend of Layoff Influencing

In a digital world, social media is one of the quickest ways to promote a service or product, but have you considered promoting your job search?  A recent article from Bloomberg explored the rise of the ‘Layoff Influencer’, a trend that has been gaining some traction in the US.  The article discusses how some job seekers who have been made redundant are using platforms such as LinkedIn and TikTok to post about their job search updates.

As Career Transition experts, we are seeing elements of this trend being adopted in the UK. Perhaps due to cultural and economic differences between the US and UK employment law, UK based employees are bringing a more reserved approach to sharing their job search experiences online.

Sharing online is a common and normal behaviour in today’s digital age and it’s inevitable that more job seekers are likely to share their story via social media in the future. This article explores the emerging trend of Layoff Influencing, and considers the benefits as well as the risks to be aware of.

What is an Influencer?

So, what is an Influencer? By definition, ‘’a person with the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending items on social media’’

‘A Layoff Influencer’ is considered someone who shares their redundancy journey with their audience, with the goal of increasing their visibility, engaging potential employers and building a network of similarly minded or affected people. However, some such US influencers are seeing this as an opportunity to provide misinformation about their former company leading US recruiters to share concerns that these Influencers would raise ‘red flags’ as a potential employee.

Why share your job search experience online?

As another tool in your Job Search strategy and managed carefully, sharing your job search journey can be a valuable and innovative way to promote yourself. Sharing stories or posting online tends to attract creative individuals who already have an online following or network and are comfortable with writing posts or uploading videos to social media. Regardless of the roles you have held, documenting your journey is personal and could be a great way to engage with your audience, including potential hiring managers and recruiters.

What to talk about? And where?

Jobseekers may start by letting their audience know that their role or position has been made redundant. They may do this initially through a LinkedIn Farewell Message or a post asking for advice and guidance around job boards, industry recruiters or an opportunity to reconnect. Once their audience is aware they are actively job seeking, they may choose to post more regularly and on other platforms to keep their audience engaged. This may include how many applications they have made to how many interviews they have secured. The aim is to story tell and increase their online visibility.

If you are thinking about increasing your social media activity and sharing your career transition online, here are some Pros and Cons to consider:

Pros

Increased Visibility

Being transparent and sharing your job search experiences may boost your visibility among hiring managers and recruiters – with platforms such as LinkedIn boasting over 1 billion members in over 200 countries, leveraging this will clearly showcase your career experience to date and to the right people.

Building Connections

If you are committing to posting regularly about your job search you will find people who will resonate with or find interest in your experiences. Creating content that inspires engagement may lead to advice, guidance or potentially even job leads.

Showcase your skills

From videos, infographics to written content, what you choose to share will reflect your creativity and communication skills. Have a look at posts you find engaging and those that you don’t. A video can be a great way to showcase your personality but consider the language you use and the environments you want to work in as this needs to be reflective in what you post.

Stay Motivated

Getting positive support from others can help boost your morale on days where your job search is tough - rather than focus on negatives, demonstrate gratitude. Tagging recruiters who you have met with or contacts who have recommended job boards or given you great advice is a positive reminder of how far you’ve come and may help motivate your followers in return.

Display Authenticity

The ability to positively ‘story tell’ your experiences may make your challenges and triumphs relatable and this may be appealing to those recruiters who value this. Humanising your job search will likely help potential followers to resonate and empathise with your journey and encourage them to connect you with their networks.

Cons

Intensified Vulnerability

Promoting yourself on social media always comes with risks, but these may be increased if you are sharing personal and emotional struggles surrounding your job search. Be careful of ‘oversharing’, you don’t know who is reading your posts. Sharing online can also make you open to negative criticism too.

Negative Professional Impact

We’ve seen from earlier reports that sharing frustrations about companies or redundancy procedures is a concern for potential employers. Whilst sharing your experiences is all about transparency with your audience, getting the messaging wrong could have a detrimental impact on your brand and career longer term. If you are seen to be talking negatively about a former organisation, you are not only damaging their brand but your personal brand too!

No Guarantee of Results

Posting more frequently is likely to gain you more followers, but increased visibility is no guarantee of a job offer. Posting online takes time, effort and careful consideration and shouldn’t be your primary focus when navigating a career transition. Remind yourself this is just one tool in your belt – successful job searching often relies on a variety of methods.

Digital Footprint Concerns

Employers and hiring managers often review social media profiles as part of their recruitment processes. Oversharing inappropriate content, negativity or unprofessional opinions can hurt your career prospects – remember, once it’s on the internet, it stays on the internet.

Don’t compare yourself to others

This can be true of all social media; you don’t always get the full story. If you read other job seekers posts online, remember you are viewing their own personal experiences and try not to let it influence your own approach. For example, if they post about being ghosted by a recruiter, that doesn’t mean all recruiters will ghost their applications and you shouldn't use a recruiter during your own job search. Try and remain open minded and if you are looking for outside support with your job search, we would always encourage you to speak to a Career Coach or a professional who has a breadth of experience of supporting individuals in navigating the job market.

Final Thoughts

The Layoff Influencer trend can be valuable in many ways – as a development of the digital job-searching strategies we already employ in our modern world, it’s clear that sharing online is becoming more accepted globally and so we can expect to see more of this content across our social media platforms.

As with any method of self-promotion, if you decide to share your career transition journey there are risks to your professional and personal image that need to be considered, so apply common sense. Hearing personal redundancy and career transition stories can be human, relatable and help job seekers find support from communities at difficult and stressful times. Managed well and mindfully, it can be a valuable way to navigate the competitive job market, build a personal brand and help attract potential employers.