Everything you do on social media could either be harming or helping you as a brand. Your online presence should further your career, not jeopardize it.
People can get their first impression of you through your social media activities. If the activities on your social media profile are not appropriate, then this will not reflect well on your image. Gone are the days when people relied on a firm handshake and a well-presented personality to build up their networks. Nowadays, graduates and professionals try to make influential social media profiles to enhance their online networks.
Every graduate needs to realize that employers normally search for you on social media profiles if they are interested in your resume. If you follow the latest method of making a video CV; the employer may want to know more about you if he finds that you have a pleasant personality on screen. So how can you ensure that your online profile generates a positive vibe and turns you into an influential brand.
Here’s some advice…
Setting up a Facebook Page
Setting up a Facebook page that demonstrates your knowledge and skills is a great way to grab an employer’s attention. This is one of the best ways to sell yourself meaningfully as a brand. So set up a page under your personal name and try to make this page full of useful information. It’s important that the page should be relevant to your interests. The page is more significant than a profile and can have a greater impact as it is visible to everyone by default. Moreover, you should update it every day and try to increase the number of page likes.
Be relevant
Try to build a profile in line with your current or desired job. Participate in industry related discussions and engage with relevant products and services. Or use blogging to share your thoughts on social media profiles. Use ‘’hash tags’’ to achieve branding and raise awareness for your social profile.
Go Secure on Facebook
Your photos on Facebook should only be viewable to people whom you know personally. Photos of your recent bachelor’s party must be kept especially private. Changing the privacy settings and making your profile private is easy and quick but take care, as it doesn’t necessarily give you control over all your personal information. One can easily identify who your friends are from the likes and comments on your cover photos. So make sure, you remove the tags from any photos that do not contribute towards your positive image.
Post Wisely
Always be careful about what you post. If your profile is visible to everyone then do not have status updates announcing your dislike for Monday morning, or your habit of getting up late and hating alarms. Also do not ‘like’ movies which are threatening to your corporate success for example ‘’Horrible Bosses’’. Avoid posting on sensitive and controversial topics, such as racist or political agendas. Update your status with more impressive topics, such as any charity work you are involved in, photos of your trip to adventurous and informative places and your participation in intellectual discussions.
Keep Updating
Do not forget to update all of your social media profiles. If you still have a profile from your school days, then check the account and review the information you made visible to everyone back then. Your social media profiles must be consistent with each other. It’s very important that all these profiles have up to date information regarding your current and previous work experience, along with your education.
Channels Interrelation
When you tweet something on Twitter, the same thing is posted on your Facebook unless you have turned off this functionality. So if you believe your audience for both accounts is different, do not forget to block all settings for interrelating channels.
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