How Social Media Can Help Your Career

Nowadays, we live in world where everyone’s on Facebook (including our parents) and we spend more time checking our social media feeds than anything else.

For some, social media can seem like a distraction. However, social media can be beneficial to your career by just knowing how to use it properly. I’ll let you know how I use my own personal social media accounts to help boost my career.

1. Personal Brand

   Your personal brand is one of the most important things you have. The way people perceive you determines how they treat you. If a potential employers sees that you are reliable, kind, and resourceful on Facebook, they may be more inclined to hire you. If they notice slang, unkind opinions, and inappropriate pictures on Facebook, they may just pass you up. Keeping a professional image on social media makes you seem like a better employee in real life.

2. Follow The Right Social Media Accounts

   Once you’ve got a personal brand on social media that shows that you’re the kind of person someone needs in their company, the next step is knowing who to follow. On my accounts, I try to follow organizations and companies that could possibly help me in my career. For example, I follow the Cleveland American Marketing Association on Twitter. I am not a member of the organization yet, however I often see updates about networking events or workshops that anyone can attend.

3. Networking

   No matter who you ask, anyone can tell you that networking is crucial to your career. Networking doesn’t always have to take place in person. Social networking sites like LinkedIn (which you should definitely have) are great tools for reaching out to people. For example, before any job interview, if I know the name of the interviewee, I look at their profile. This will give them a notification saying I viewed their profile and hopefully they will do the same. Small things like this can make a difference!

How has social media affected your career? Let me know in the comments!