Over the course of the past decade, social media has assumed new and more complex functions as different platforms have become more exciting, innovative and replete with self-promotional options. What were once purely social platforms, connecting individuals across the world, are now platforms upon which you can promote yourself – as both a star employee, and a talented self-starter working on their own projects. With this in mind, and with the world of work more competitive than ever, here are some top tips to help you use social media to advertise yourself and help your career – now, and in the future.
Remove Personal Posts
Now that social media platforms are open for all employers to look at, it’s best that you scour through your entire profile in order to cleanse it of any incriminating activity. Whether that’s in the form of teenage posts, drunken snaps, or questionable comment threads, this is your chance to show yourself off in the light you wish to be seen: professional, trustworthy, and reliable.
Make a Promotional Page
Both Facebook and Instagram offer you great opportunities to share yourself in a less personal manner – instead showing off whatever abilities and skills that you have in your locker. Change it up, use social media to advertise yourself and your talents. If you’re an illustrator, then Instagram is perfect for showing off your gifts. If you’re a social entrepreneur, you might find the ‘forum’ and ‘group’ elements of Facebook most useful. Finally, if you’re a budding writer or journalist, Twitter may be the best platform for you.
Build a LinkedIn Profile
Next, you should build yourself a LinkedIn profile. These profiles are the most important for prospective hiring officials, as they’re less about your social and personal history and more about all the achievements, educational, sporting or career-wise, that you’ve accumulated over the years. It’s here that you might find yourself selected by a hiring an official or recruiter, simply due to the promising nature of the profile that you build.
Your Own Website
When you’re changing and creating your own social media profiles to match the impression you wish to convey to those who may hire you, you should also think about starting a website. It’s incredibly simply – not to mention free – to do this, using a provider like WordPress. Once you have a website, you can use it to share your writing, your art, or your coding prowess. If you want to gain a sporting scholarship from asmscholarships.com, this is the place to build your personal profile as an excellent sportsperson – including photos, rankings, medals and reports of your latest events. A website is the perfect extra piece of media to share with those who you’re applying to.
Social Media Marketing
If you’re really savvy with social media, and you’ve curated a number of profiles that are all well-followed and engaging, then you’re likely not only to look professional, but to appear skilled in the very field of social media marketing – an important and growing field in the modern world. Curate your personal image, and you’ll find yourself curating a brand’s image in no time at all – just because you’ve proven your worth to a potential employer.
Partner and Collaborate
Finally, why not look to other influencers and professionals with whom you’d like to collaborate online, and over social media, in order to share audiences and grow your network as a result. Not only does this mean that you’ll have more followers overall, but you will gain a valuable new contact, and perhaps even someone with whom you can collaborate into the future, to add to your overall network, which will be growing thanks to your efforts on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Social media is a powerful tool for self-promotion – and the above reasons explain why it is so important now.