The far-reaching impact of social media is no secret, and here are some effective tips on how you can use your social media account to take your career to newer heights.
Expert Tips to Boost Your Career through Social Media
Does it sound too good to be true? But in reality, the picture is not too far from what the British broadcaster envisions. The advancements in telecommunications technology have brought on many a change the world over, and connecting to people over the Internet is the new way of networking nowadays. There are very few around us who do not have an account on any one or more of the numerous social media platforms on the Internet these days. So why not use your social media account to enhance your existing network and make your career soar high?
Perks that your social media account brings to your career
There is no denying that we all love to put up a part of our lives on social media. From embarking on epic Pinterest DIY projects to showcasing our singing talent on Snapchat, from posting pictures of a memorable hiking weekend on Facebook to uploading moments of our last grand meal on Instagram, we all love to hunker over the attention that social media platforms give us. Providing fodder to our gradually inflated sense of selves, the impact of social media is undeniable in our daily lives. However, why limit it to our personal sphere when it can work wonders for your careers as well? How, you ask? Here’s how having an active social media account will help you take your career forward by leaps and bounds.
Creating and enhancing your brand
If you are still having troubles picturing yourself as a brand, then you need to enroll for a starter pack in the digitized age of professional identities. In this era of fast-paced communication and advanced technology, only the brands get their fair share of attention among the teeming sea of job-hunters. Your social media account can help you stand out from the crowd and double up as a portfolio where you can showcase your set of skills for prospective employers to peruse. Having a social media account focusing on your profession is something that every new-age employer wants in their prospective employee for it speaks volumes about their abilities to market themselves cleverly to stay one step ahead of the competition at all times.
Networking effectively
For professional networking, social media does what it does best: connecting you to the people who matter. Establishing a well-connected network of professionals in your industry or area of expertise and beyond, social media profiles help you to stay in touch with the bigwigs and make your presence felt without having to walk up to them in conferences and trying awkward conversation starters. We all know how well our social media accounts provide us with the right amount of cushion to come out of our introverted or socially awkward selves, so why not make the best of it by staying connected to professionals who can bring in countless career opportunities your way? Networking through social media is the newest trend, and it will do your career a whole world of good if you consider connecting with the industry professionals right away.
Increasing your visibility
Visibility is all about putting yourself out there for prospective employers or clients to view your social media persona. Stats show that the last quarter of the last year saw 2.07 billion active users on Facebook, so you can well imagine the sheer number of prospective career opportunities among those numbers. The more active you are on your social media account and the more you put in efforts to keep it updated, the more are the chances of probable employers spotting your profile. Whether you are looking for a change in your career or in your first job hunt, your social media account can help you make the most of your visibility factor and take care of the Web traffic that comes your way.
Staying updated with the industry trends
The need to stay updated with the latest industry trends is not something that you can give a miss if you wish to have a fulfilling career in the digital era. Whether reading up on the latest blogs about career trends or following industry honchos on social media platforms, propelled by the power of the Web, you can now stay abreast to all the trendiest updates in your industry and beyond. Having an updated knowledge of the latest trends will add to your professional profile, so you become a valuable asset for the future employers. Transcending geographical borders has been one of the greatest boons that the age of Internet brought on, and that is why making use of the digital resources, in this case, your social media accounts, is what you should be doing for creating as many career opportunities that you can.
While there are myriad benefits of using your social media account for taking your career to newer heights, not many are aware of the vast possibilities it holds. That is the reason why we have brought to you some foolproof tips to use your social media account cleverly, so newer career vistas open up to you.
How to use your social media account to boost your career
“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.”
Milton Berle (American comedian)
Apt words for the digital age, creating opportunities wherever and whenever you can is an art that you must master to stay ahead of your contemporaries in the increasingly competitive job sphere. The following are some of the great ways that you can put your various social media accounts to good use so that you can give your career the impetus that it needs.
467 million users and counting, LinkedIn is the social media account that industry professionals swear by. You may be well acquainted with the features and the scope of LinkedIn as a powerful social media platform to connect professionals, but as is the case with most users, learning about its optimum usage is something that you should have in your kitty if you wish to soar high in your career. Do not wait until you wish to shift jobs to finally dust off your LinkedIn profile. Use it to connect professionally with people you know and beyond right from today so that when the time comes for a change, you can find an easy and smooth transitional phase in between two jobs. Here is how you can make optimum use of your LinkedIn profile, so it provides your career with the necessary impetus to take it forward.
- Carefully build your network around the people you are acquainted with at first and then venture into some background research for the companies, jobs, positions, or industries in which you wish to find a place for yourself. Track companies and specific contact persons for your desired job designations and connect with them through LinkedIn.
- LinkedIn has various features that let you stay connected to your followers and the people you follow. Explore each of them and find the one that suits your requirements the best. Carefully plan a strategy to use those features to the best of your advantage so that you can do what LinkedIn does best: connect you to the people who matter.
- Staying connected to a large network of people gives you the scope of having a two-way interaction with most of them. If you are unsure of how to initiate conversations, try the recommendations feature on LinkedIn. Through this feature, you will be able to give and receive recommendations from the people with whom you have worked in the past or are currently working with. Be careful only to recommend people on whose work you place a high value or trust for your recommendations will be visible to the people who follow them, and you do not want to lose credibility just for the sake of earning a recommendation in return on LinkedIn.
Undoubtedly the most dominant of all social media platforms, the sheer number of Facebook users can compete with some of the most populated countries in the world. Quite naturally the most-loved social network of all, Facebook too, has a plethora of possibilities within its new and updated features that will let you spread your wings as far as your career is concerned. A fabulous way to connect with friends and family, Facebook is where the whole world is at, it seems. A few tweaks to your privacy settings on Facebook and you will be good to go, that is, all prepared to use your Facebook profile to open up newer professional vistas for you. Since the hugely popular social media platform offers a series of streamlines features that you can put to great use, here are a few tips on connecting to your professional contacts via the most-loved social network of all time.
- At the very outset, change your privacy settings to filter who sees what you post. It can be done for all the posts all at once or for individual posts. Use your discretion to filter the number and category of viewers for all that you post, and you will be able to direct the Web crowd to the relevant posts.
- Post articles, photos and videos that are relevant to your industry and let your prospective employers have a clear idea about your personality when they go through your Facebook Timeline for the first time.
- If you are feeling adventurous or wish to keep your personal profile separate from that of your professional realms, it is best to create a business page for yourself or your company (if you are a business owner) on Facebook and promote it through the network of established contacts on Facebook. In that case, you can channel all your professional efforts into gaining followers for that page and post relevant content that keeps them hooked to your page.
- Make good use of your personal contacts to find out and track company heads or business leads from which you can develop contacts that will pay off in the long run. Connect with the industry influencers and make your presence felt by proactively commenting on or sharing their posts but do not pounce at every opportunity that you get or otherwise you might come across as too desperate.
Twitter currently stands at 330 million active monthly users as per the latest reports. The recent changes brought in by Twitter have increased the character limit to 280 from the previous 140, giving you more scope to express yourself and use that expression to market the brand that is you. Using photos, videos and written content strategically, planning your Twitter road-map will be a walk in the park if you have some time to spare every day. Your Twitter account that you had earlier used to post funny anecdotes about your favourite celebrities can be turned into a powerful tool for honing the networking area of your professional entity. Having conversational features, you can use Twitter for connecting to people in your industry so as you can make your online presence felt. Pack in the punch with Twitter, and there will be no looking back for you in your career with a well-planned-out social media strategy.
- Share tweets, comment on others’ posts and stay updated about the happenings all over the world by following industry influencers’ Twitter handles so you can always keep pace with the changing times.
- Do not hesitate to put yourself out there and make yourself visible on Twitter by commenting on tweets by people you do not know personally. Making your online presence felt involves being assertive about your virtual persona and what better way to do that than to be a part of a global conversation on Twitter?
- Set your account privacy to ‘open’ so more people can see you on Twitter and retweet your tweets. Staying connected to a large group of people is also possible using the group DM features that Twitter offers.
- Make efficient use of the hashtags. Learning how to use hashtags to your benefit and to increase your visibility that you can easily pick up from a few online tutorials coupled with your innate creativity. Use trending and relevant hashtags with your content so your tweets gain popularity and you can attract more viewership to your account.
With over 800 million monthly active users as per reports from the last quarter of the last year, it seems like everyone is on Instagram nowadays. The photo and video sharing website have so much scope to enhance your career beyond giving you a platform to post your morning yoga routine or display your amateur cooking skills. Who would have thought that your Insta account will be capable of opening a world of professional possibilities for you? But living in a world where a lot of decisions are made through the devices that we carry around in our palms all day, it is best to go all out in the race to carve a Web niche for yourself.
A visual content-driven social media platform, Instagram is rapidly becoming a hub of displaying professional skills and a centre for business development with each passing day. Here is how you can put your Insta account to great use for taking your career many strides ahead.
- Drive the content-based traffic on Instagram towards your account by posting relevant photos or videos with suitable and popular hashtags you can be easily visible to a large number of people.
- Interact with industry bigwigs through DMs, or simply learn about their work culture and genre by following them on Instagram so that these small actions can make your presence felt among the people who matter in the industry or area of your expertise.
- Use the Instagram Story feature to innovate and create interesting content that strikes a chord among your followers. Let the Insta Story tell your story using a number of videos, photos, and hashtagging options.
Now that you know the many ways that you can use your social media accounts to create opportunities and take your career forward, keep a tab on all your updates and posts. The new-age employers of today are sure to Google a prospective candidate, and you do not want any untoward post or photo to come up in that search. The cardinal rule to follow while using your social media accounts to sharpen your focus on your profession is to have a crisp and streamlines bio or profile description in each of them. No one wants to go through an ill-furnished social media account, so be careful not to leave any gaping holes in your Timeline and compose an intriguing bio that describes who you are in brief and engaging words. Since the sphere of social media is in a state of constant flux, make sure that you stay updated about the latest trends so as not to fall behind and keep the flow of Web traffic coming your way while managing your various social media accounts.
“Find out what you like doing best and get someone to pay you for doing it.”
Katharine Whitehorn (British journalist)
Author's Bio:
Jijo Thomas is a UK-based digital marketer and passionate blogger with an additional part-time job as assignment help provider. He has a penchant for writing informative blogs for the young career professionals looking to leave their mark in the professional realm, helping them learn the tricks of the trade along the way.
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