Is Your Career Getting Enough Social Attention?

There’s no doubt that social media is here to stay. In the early development of social media, BBS sites and AOL Instant Messenger ruled, then Myspace came along and changed everything.

From there, the rise of YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, and more have taken over, leading people to share more about their lives in the public eye than ever conceived of before.

Today, with all of the social media choices and pressure, it’s important to realize that potential employers are also vetting candidates based on social media.

Keep It Clean

With this in mind, it’s a good idea to treat your social media profiles like an online resume and personality introduction.

You may want to share that political meme that decries and idea, but will it help your career aspirations? Probably not.

Additionally, that post you made a few years ago discussing how awesome the raging keg party was last night … yeah, you should probably delete that, or at the least, make it “friends only”.

Potential employers, for better or worse, will judge you based upon social media information, and without the chance to explain, you might be passed over for a position simply because you’ve overshared.

Once You’re Hired

After you’ve attained a position with a company, social media then needs to transition from resume-mode to promotion-mode.

While your employer may no longer be keeping an eagle eye on your social media profiles, your customers or clients might. This is especially true in careers such as cosmetology, where cosmetologists and their clients often have very close relationships.

In fact, in the article, “How Social Media Can Take Your Cosmetology Career to the Next Level,” the author demonstrates that marketing one’s skills by providing creative content while engaging with clients is a surefire path to success.

Keep Updating

Once you’ve been hired and acquired clients, it’s also a good idea to keep updating your social media accounts with content-rich post.

This means photos and videos to continue to engage with clients and potential clients. Also, encourage sharing of posts as this will potentially bring in more clients for you and for the company.

If you take pictures or videos of clients, always get their permission beforehand prior to posting, and when possible, have them sign an agreement that allows for Internet sharing. You never know when something will go viral and be spread by millions of people across the world.

The last thing you need is a lawsuit due to someone who didn’t want his or her image associated with your company spread across the Internet.

About the Author: Andrew Rusnak is an author who writes on topics that include social media and business development.