Utilize and Professionalize Your Social Media

Written by Shelby Oyer

Social media is great for many reasons. It gives us a way to stay connected with friends, to keep track of what people and organizations are doing, and can provide us with the opportunity to meet new people.

With the growing popularity of social media, it’s no surprise that more and more employers are going there first to check out potential employees.

Here are some tips to help you both look professional to these employers, as well as how to utilize the many options social media provides during your job search.

Facebook

-Check your privacy. Set your profile to private to prevent any unwanted things from being seen and to keep your account safe from hackers.

-Remove incriminating photos/statuses. This may seem like common sense but be sure to double check that no photos of you out partying with your friends or statuses where you complain about your boss are present on your page. Even if your page is private, things have a way of being discovered.

-Do research. Look up companies you’re interested in working for. “Like” their pages and use the information given to gain knowledge about the company. Seeing their updates in your newsfeed may give you a recent piece of information to talk about in an interview, as well.

Twitter

-Follow companies. Search for companies you’re interested in as well as companies in your related field of interest and follow them for information and updates.

­-Retweet and favorite. Take it a step further and interact with these companies by retweeting, favoriting or tweeting back at them. You might just catch their attention.

-Keep it clean. Make your picture professional and keep your tweets professional, too. Mention in your bio what you’re interested in and who you are so companies who take a look at you (after all your retweeting and interactions with them, naturally) know more about who you are.

-Follow internship and job companies. Places like internships.com and many other sites have Twitter accounts where they regularly post jobs and internships for you to apply for.

LinkedIn

This is possibly the most important social media site for you to utilize. If you don’t have an account, make one. Like, today! Employers rely on this site more and more. Plus it’s basically an online resume for you to refer to, post samples of your work, get references, etc.

-Update your info. Make your picture professional and make sure all of your information is on there and up-to-date. Include school activities as well as jobs and post any samples of your work. LinkedIn is basically an expanded resume where you’re not limited to just one page. Utilize this!

-Get connections/recommendations. “Connect” with your coworkers (past and present), bosses, friends, RAs, parents’ friends…anyone and everyone you can think of. You never know who might be connected to them and see your profile as a result. Also, ask former employers or coworkers for recommendations. Personalize your requests, too.

-Join and follow. Join groups on LinkedIn (may I recommend the LACD page? *hint hint*) and follow companies you’re interested in. This will give you first-hand access to new information about the companies, including any possible job openings.

-Do company research. Utilize your groups and who you follow to do research on the companies you’re interested in. This will always come in handy in interviews.

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Having a strong, professional online presence can greatly help you in your job search. Not only do these sites allow you access to information about companies you’re interested in, they also allow those companies information about you, giving you a leg up on the competition.