Using Social Media for Professional Networking

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What social media accounts do you use? Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: all of these and more are at our fingertips every day, keeping us entertained as well as connected to friends and loved ones in their own unique ways.

So it might be hard to believe that there are more uses for your social media accounts than finding funny gifs and cat videos to pass the time, or seeing what all your friends from high school are up to these days. Social media platforms ” especially LinkedIn ” can be a huge help professionally, too!

Whether it’s stocking up your photo albums with plenty of workplace-appropriate snapshots, reposting industry-related articles and news, or even just replying to a comment on one of your posts, what you do on social media has a way of “selling” you as much as anything you say in an interview. And if you’re actively job searching or just know that you’ll want to make a move eventually, don’t write off leveraging your accounts in the meantime.

Minding your manners

When you’re on your personal social media accounts, joking with friends and family, it’s easy to forget that your conversations are visible to your other connections, or that potential employers and coworkers might not get all of your jokes. This can put your peers off from interacting with you, making online networking pretty difficult. As you fine-tune your profiles to be more workplace-friendly, keep an eye on how you reply to or message others. Say your words out loud before you type them, the better to test how they might be interpreted by someone who doesn’t know you as well, or type them out and then read them at least once before hitting send.  

Quality over quantity

Businesses and brands have their own methods of determining how often they should post to their social media accounts, and you can do something similar to ensure maximum visibility and engagements. Potential employers and industry leaders don’t want to be bombarded with your content 24/7, just like you would be overwhelmed and annoyed if a company kept posting or messaging you with offers and content you weren’t looking for in the first place. As long as your posts are relatable and well-crafted, your target audiences will take note and actually want to interact with your content from there on out.

Self-promotion vs. interaction

There’s nothing wrong with being proud of everything you’ve accomplished so far, or using your experience and skill sets to engage in a conversation about something in a related field. But there is a big difference between that and blatant self-promotion. When you mention anything about yourself and what you’re good at in social media conversations, remember to keep things light. The whole reason for anyone being on one of these platforms is for conversation and connecting with others, not necessarily to talk business. Offer your opinions or advice when it’s appropriate to do so, but keep in mind that even CEOs and industry all-stars like to leave the office elsewhere, too! If they’re interested in your as an employee, they’ll be sure to contact you and ask you to interview. Then you can bring out the big guns and impress them with all of that self-promotion that doesn’t boil down to 280 characters or less.  

Social media platforms are excellent networking tools, especially when used properly with the right considerations in mind. For more advice on connecting and interacting with your future employers and colleagues, stay tuned to our blog. Or, contact us today for help with your proactive job search to-dos!

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