With the use of social media growing so quickly, have you stopped to think about how your use of it could affect your career? Employers are now equipped with teams and tools to quickly find your social media profiles, so they can assess you and how you present yourself. Follow these quick tips to increase your employability based on your online profiles.
1. Use More Professional Pictures
This step is quite important because the photos you post online are vital to your presentation and how people view you. As a first impression, it’s best to make it a great one. Having some professional-looking photos in work attire or professional headshots taken for profiles like LinkedIn is a great start. It shows commitment, effort, and willingness. It also allows employers to get a feel of what you would be like in their workplace.
On Facebook, you may choose to use a mix of professional and general photos of yourself, but be aware of the image you are portraying. Do you like to go out on the weekends to party? Enjoy it, but don’t post it publicly. Employers may view you as irresponsible, especially if there is a pattern of photos posted every weekend.
Try to make sure any non-professional photos still paint a good picture of you. Dress nicely, smile, be well-groomed, and try to take photos in places that reflect a productive lifestyle. Lastly, don’t forget, you can delete photos to clean up your profiles.
2. Create Captivating Content
Do you enjoy content creation? Creating content relevant to your field of work or study could be a major boost to your job hunt and visibility to employers. This gives employers an idea of what you can offer and shows a greater understanding.
Always make sure to cross-reference anything you are making to ensure accuracy, whether it be an article, video, or podcast. Posting work that is not accurate or incorrect in parts will not look good. Likewise, well-planned and created content will greatly boost your personal brand and allow you to sell yourself. For example, if you are a marketer, you could make an informational video about marketing strategies, their benefits, and their downfalls.
A great platform for sharing this sort of content is LinkedIn, where employers actively search for employees and want to know what they are capable of. This is the most effective way of showing capabilities and understanding quickly. If you want to learn more about online content, here are some of the best types of visual elements for content creation.
3. Show Support for Non-Profit Organizations
Do you want to show your support for non-profit organizations and boost your job outcomes in the process? Similarly to volunteering, showing support online and spreading awareness of good causes shows you are supportive and motivated, and that you are proactive in making the world a better place.
This could include something as simple as sharing fundraisers for animal rights, participating in mental health fundraisers and posting about them, or even just sharing the social media profiles of these organizations. Each step you take to support your community and the world becoming a better place will help your chances of getting that job you’ve always wanted. After all, employers like to know that you have a range of interests and passions.
4. Interact With Organizations
With social media becoming so widespread, you can contact almost any organization online and receive a swift response. Did you know this process could be beneficial to your career? This shows confidence, productiveness, and eagerness.
Ways that you could interact with an organization can include asking questions about topics, goods, or services relevant to them, which shows eagerness to learn and grow. Another form of interaction could be writing reviews or filming reviews about their products or services, which shows confidence and an ability to make informed decisions.
A final way is to show support for them by sharing their content, reacting, and responding to posts, as this shows you are engaged and paying attention to their company values. As a very basic start to networking, it is still opening a line of communication and leaving an online footprint.
5. Tweak Your Privacy Settings
If you enjoy party life or post about irrelevant things that may be looked down upon, privacy settings are your best friend. These settings top employers from seeing everything, and will ultimately help you maintain a great professional front while also posting about your personal life.
To do this, be sure to adjust your settings on all platforms you regularly use. Not only can privacy settings prevent people from seeing your content, but they can also prevent them from stalking you online.
Want to learn more about online privacy? Check out the types of tools to help improve your online security and privacy. Overall, tweaking these settings is a great tool for protecting your professional and personal identity.
6. Build a Personal Website
Ever wanted to showcase your professional services? Building a website is the perfect way to do it, and you can link it to your social media accounts so anyone who views them can easily access your site.
Your own website gives you more control over the format and design than social media. This gives you more creative freedom and allows you to present relevant information in more effective ways. You can use it to boost your reach on social media and your website at the same time.
Likewise, holding a domain name costs money, so this shows dedication to a long-term career in your field, and you can showcase any number of skills on your website with articles, portfolios, and videos. For example, the front page of your website will be the main selling point, so make sure it is well-designed and captivating for your intended audience!
7. Always Have a LinkedIn Presence
LinkedIn is one of the best online platforms for professional networking and is versatile in what you can achieve. As a job seeker, you may be wondering how you can get the best use out of LinkedIn. It’s simple. Be active and engaged, and always check your account at least daily, so you can respond to messages or tagged posts.
You don’t want to miss an opportunity because you weren’t active for an extended period. Engage with posts, people, and organizations regularly. This is the main purpose of LinkedIn, and it shows confidence and communication skills. Finally, be consistent. If you post, make sure it is regular for the best outcomes. It shows you can manage time, meet deadlines and be consistent with your work.
Protect Your Online Identity When Job Seeking
These simple steps could help you land your next position with an amazing company. It never hurts to enrich your professional brand by polishing your image, and the steps provided could be your key to achieving this, along with protecting your digital content. It’s never too late to review your social media presence and show potential employers you hold more than the skills they’re looking for.