The world of technology for all its wonders invariably comes with complicated issues and dilemmas in job hunts, interviews and, even if you are the employed, the world of work.
Social media is a place to create profiles to effectively promote yourself. Futureboard looked into what employers look for and scrutinize when it comes to candidates on social media. It’s important to consider, however, what we can we do to enhance our online footprint. Not only is it a wonderful social tool but it’s an important way of promoting our personal brand.
- Activity:
It is one thing to have a pristine, spotless account and quite another step up when you increase engagement online. For example when I created my personal blog I was hesitant of sharing ‘serious’ content on a platform like Facebook or Twitter. After all, most social media platforms are regarded as light-hearted places, often stereo-typically for procrastination and passing time. Interestingly though, the blog thrived when I started sharing content!
Sharing content is a great way to show your would-be employers an online trail that has nurtured your passion for a particular area of employment alongside personal content. Engaging with followers and friends (to a point) will drive your accounts into overtime which is an even better way to bolster your presence online. Don’t solely focus on your account, focus on others accounts. Go from one-dimensional to multi-dimensional.
- Connecting:
- Don’t just add friends and follow people – engage with them. At the end of the day it isn’t it about how many followers you have it is about who’s following you.
- Ensure that you have URL that leads to your company or website.
- Don’t just join groups – participate in them.
- Don’t just post updates to update – ask yourself what your connections and would-be employers want to see and share (Hint: Short videos and pictures can increase audience engagement rather than simple links)
- Expand upon Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn:
Utilize these other social media platforms that will enhance your online strategy and presence. Don’t be solely mainstream, go that step further than then next person.
Buffer: is a software application designed to manage social networks, by providing the means for a user to schedule relevant posts to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. It will save you a lot of time and hassle if you are busy and can’t use social media frequently.
JustUnfollow: Filter out and erase inactive and spam followers.
Twitter Analytics: Measure and boost your impact on Twitter, TA measures engagement, provides useful stats as well as graphs which indicate the level at which you are making an impression online.
Klout: is a website and mobile app that uses social media analytics to rank its users according to online social influence via the “Klout Score”, which is a numerical value between 1 and 100.
Tweetdeck: An interface consists of a series of customisable columns, which can be set up to display your Twitter timeline, mentions, direct messages, lists, trends, favourites, search results, hashtags, or all tweets by or to a single user while shortening URL length to save characters. You can filter what you do and don’t want to see on the Twitter feed.
WordPress: Create a blog, it will make you a more coherent writer which is so often overlooked. You don’t have to be Shakespeare, but you have to be professional and often succinct in the eyes of your employers. A blog can channel your passion for an area of employment. You can become more helpful to those around you and you can quickly become a good conveyor of resourceful information in a specialised area to a professional degree.
Matthew