Using Social Media To Boost Your Career Or Company Productively

The line “think before you click” would not have made sense a couple of decades ago. Now that the internet has become an important element of our everyday lives, it has turned into a line we always read and hear. This is because once you put something online, it is quite difficult to remove it; you can delete it, but other people would have easily downloaded or screen captured it.

Social media is not all detrimental, however. If you put it to good use, it can be highly beneficial for your business or career. It is a great tool for fast communication; you can send an e-mail or a private message to someone in the opposite part of the world in an instant. Other than that, it is also useful for marketing and publicity; in fact, many businesses focus on social media marketing in order to promote their brands, products, and/or services.

Think of the Internet and these social media websites as neutral forces. They are not necessarily good or bad; much like every other tool, how social media can impact one’s life and career depend on how the user and how one plans on using it. Find out how you can utilize social media to boost your career or company with these points and tips:

1. Use your social media pages to make a good impression on potential employers and to get that job opportunity.

As a professional, it is important to maintain a certain image, even in the fluid space of the Internet. Part of background check before hiring someone these days is checking one’s social media pages as well. Many employers and Human Resources (HR) managers, directors, and officers admit to checking potential employees’ social media pages like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google+ to get a glimpse of their lives, personality, and interests. While not all, a percentage of them admit that the contents of an applicant’s social media pages affect their decisions on hiring & promotion. It is for these reasons that you really have to be careful in posting online.

Your social media page can be used in order to make a good impression on your employer. It also helps them get to know you more other than the information on your resume like your connections, knowledge, skills, and volunteer and charity activities.

On top of these, if your beliefs are in line with the company’s culture and vision, it might influence them even more to hire you. Showing a bit of personality would not hurt as well – no need to delete the light comedy videos you share and wacky photos with friends. This is a good way to show you have a light side and are able to still have time for other things aside from work.

Some employers go as far as looking at your grammar. If you’re one to confuse “your” and “you’re”, and “there”, “their”, and “they’re”, you might want to really double check and make sure you are using the right words when posting in social media pages.

As mentioned as well, being very aggressive and using curse words will not be helpful. Avoiding social media altogether would not be advisable as well. Studies show that employers are most likely to reject an applicant if there is no sign of him/her on social media pages.

When you post in your social media pages in an intellectual and formal way, free of grammatical errors, that will definitely be plus points for employers doing background checks online.

2. On Using Facebook

Posting about your political and religious beliefs are not exactly bad. However, it depends on the content of the actual posts and the way they are delivered. Being too aggressive might turn off potential employers. And expect that believing things contrary to that of your company’s (and posting about them on social media) can take a toll on your opportunity as well, although most of them would probably not admit so.

On top of that, how you deliver your messages on your posts in your social media pages can attract or turn off potential employers and customers. It’s not all sharing photos and videos on social media.

Almost every one of us in social media also put out our own thoughts and ideas. As aforementioned, the way you deliver your message and the way you write your posts and descriptions can also be the basis for other employers assessing your skills, knowledge, and personality. That is why, it is important to always double check your posts before clicking “Post”, “Publish”, or “Upload”.

Make a Fan Page & Boosting Posts: In Facebook, fan page and business page are one thing. Whether you are a freelancer or running a business, it is highly essential to have a Facebook fan page. Other than that, you can also pay to “boost your posts” and even your page. This means your posts are more likely to show up in people’s timelines and can appear in the form of ‘ads’ even to those who do not follow your page. Using this feature can be a great marketing strategy, if done right, of course.

Use the Create-an-Event: Another feature of Facebook you might deem useful is the Events feature. You can create a customizable event – its privacy, the host/s, additional information – and you can send out invites to Facebook users. You can also set it on public so that many other users can see it and find out more about the event.

3. On Using LinkedIn

You are probably thinking LinkedIn is not as interesting as other social media websites, but it is so for a reason. The thing with LinkedIn is that it is a business website. That is why, if you aim to make the most of it, it is of utmost importance to keep your profile formal and professional.

Easy Contact: One thing people find most valuable about LinkedIn is how you can easily contact people right away, and people in there would see no problem with it or even expect it. After all, it’s a website business that aims to connect professionals, workers, and experts from various fields and make networking easier for them.

Create groups: Like Facebook, LinkedIn also has a feature that allows users to create a group wherein you can make announcements or promote events. This feature also enables you to send private messages