Here an exercise for you: Try google yourself and see what you get. I’ll give you a minute to do so.
Scenario #1: Chances are the top 5 results will direct to your social media (e.g Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.) If you do see these coming up from your search, think about this for a moment: Do I want my future employer to see all of these tweets, posts and photos?
Scenario #2: Nothing. You are invisible on the internet. This is probably rare these days, but if this is the case, ask yourself this: Am I hurting my chance to show my future employer that I’m more than just a page of resume I send them?
We are living in digital age, and our digital footprints are everywhere. Understanding how to leverage the internet to enhance your professional presence is more important than ever. In this blog, I want to give you some tips to kick start your professional presence.
- Decide which social media platform is for personal use or professional use: With so many mainstream platforms available these days, you will need to select and tailor each one for different purposes. For example, if you want to use Facebook to connect with your friends and family members, avoid adding your work-related acquaintance to your Friend List. If you use Instagram to showcase your artwork, avoid posting your personal photos on this account. Personally, I keep Facebook for personal use, and I choose Twitter and LinkedIn for professional use.
- Clean up your existing digital footprints: Do yourself a favor, make sure that things you don’t want to show to the public won’t appear on search engine. Once you have decided which platform for which purpose, have a clean-up of your existing digital footprints. Embarrassing college photos on Facebook/Instagram should be deleted or set to private. Be sure to change settings for each platform accordingly, such that contents from each platform won’t be readily available to those you don’t wish to share.
- Have a good LinkedIn profile: LinkedIn is becoming a powerful platform in professional world, regardless of career path. It is an enhanced version of your CV/resume, and readily available for potential employer and job recruiter to evaluate you. Having a good LinkedIn profile will give you an edge on internship/job search. Here are some few tips to take your LinkedIn profile to the next level (Link: https://hbr.org/2015/05/how-to-use-your-linkedin-profile-to-power-a-career-transition)
- Inject some personality touches to your professional presence: Just because you want to maintain a professional image, doesn’t mean it’s cliché and doesn’t reflect who you are as a person. Strike a balance between being professional and showing your personality. Don’t craft every sentence like it comes from a textbook. If you have a good sense of humor, inject some of that element into your post. If you’re artistic, design your profile background.
- Post for the job you want, not the job you have: If you have selected some social media platforms for professional use (e.g. LinkedIn, Twitter), be sure to stay active and maintain your presence on these platforms. You shouldn’t have these accounts with minimum information and let them collect dust. Instead, you should selectively post contents. My advice is to leverage the power of these platforms for the job you want in the future. For example, if you are inspired to do business, connect with people in the field and engage in discussion on management and leadership skills on LinkedIn. If you want to do public policy, connect with activists/public figures/politicians on Twitter and tweet about contents related to policy.
Jasmine Naik says
October 9, 2017 at 4:31 pmThis is really good advice!!! If you need help figuring out how to improve your linkedin profile or any other platform you choose, I suggest a drop in visit with Neda Moayedi. She has hours in both the career center and the graduate resource center. She can sit down with you and pinpoint what needs work and what looks good.