People have found several uses of social media. Like many other important things, social media also plays a key role in the hiring process. According to a survey conducted recently, over 90% employers or hiring managers go to social media websites for screening job applicants. Therefore, social media platforms have proved to be excellent for building your personal brand and attracting the attention of potential employers.
By using social media to build your personal brand, you’ll quickly put yourself ahead of other job applicants and achieve several career benefits. But do you know how you can use websites like Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter to establish your personal brand?
Here are some important guidelines when using social media–
Understand Social Media
Even today, there are a lot of people who entirely misunderstand social media. Before you jump on to that bandwagon, you should be aware of the true essence of social media participation. You should remember to focus on the word ‘social’ rather than on the ‘media’ part.
You don’t need to do social. But you need to be social.
Know How You Want Others to Think of You
As you start to use social media to build your personal brand, you need to discover the kind of personality you have or want to establish. You may want others to think of you as an intellectual. You may like to be looked upon as a creative person. Or you may like people to look at you as trendy.
No matter what or how you want others to think of you, it’s crucial to define that personality from the start.
Complete Your Profiles
One of the most common mistakes with the majority of social media profiles is that they are not 100% complete. If you are using social media to establish a personal brand of your own, you should never make this mistake. Whether it’s your Facebook profile, LinkedIn profile or Twitter profile, you should make sure you have completed them with all the necessary information.
Incomplete social profiles look highly professional.
Spend Time with Contacts Genuinely
You can’t expect to benefit from social media unless you start to spend time with your contacts genuinely. After all, the contacts that you have are real people. You should be ready to talk to them, discuss important topics with them, respond to their comments etc. Only setting up social media accounts doesn’t bring the benefits you may be looking for.
Your contacts should feel that you have respect for them, you value their opinions and you are genuinely interested in them. If you don’t know, social media success is all about giving and then getting back.
Share Your Expertise
Sharing your knowledge doesn’t only present you as an expert in your industry, but it also provides value to others. No matter what niche, industry or field of work you belong to, you should never hesitate to inform and educate others so that they start to look at you as an expert. You can educate others by posting value-added updates, responding to other people’s comments and answering different industry-related questions they may have.
Be Consistent
Building personal branding through social media isn’t something that you can do within a few days or weeks. It takes both time and diligence. While sticking to the key guidelines, you need to be consistent as well.
Are you using social media just for fun or building your personal brand for achieving career success? Please comment.
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