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7
social media myths busted for professionals
Facebook
and Twitter aren’t just for youngsters and celebrities. Such online social
and professional platforms can help you enhance your career by letting you
showcase your talent and expertise.
MYTH 1
Serious professionals do not waste time on
social media.
If you believe that media is
only for college kids, reconsider. Social media is defined as the creation,
exchange and sharing of information and ideas in virtual communities and
networks. Would you ignore an opportunity to exchange information at an
industry conference or present a paper at a seminar? No. Then why miss out
on doing the same on the Net, where most people are available? Use the
medium comprehensively to enhance your reach, increase your effectiveness
and create a personal brand.
MYTH 2
I made a LinkedIn profile once.
Now recruiters will find me.
LinkedIn is the most popular
professional networking site, where your profile looks like a resume. So,
you can avoid posting a CV with a job board like Naukri or Monster, which
would tell the world that you are looking for a job. However, creating a
profile once on LinkedIn is not enough. You need to update it every couple
of months to reflect new projects, achievements and skills. Do not use
jargon from your past jobs. Instead, use terminology, skills and
responsibilities that highlight your fit for the profile that you seek.
These keywords will help relevant recruiters find you. Get recommendations
and skill endorsements from former colleagues and professionals to
emphasise the image you are building. To make the recruiter’s job easier,
participate actively in relevant groups and communities on social media.
MYTH 3
Twitter is only for celebrities
and politicians.
It’s common for sports and film
celebrities, as well as politicians, to tweet in order to stay in the
limelight. However, online broadcasting is similar to offline platforms
like television or newspapers, which is why Twitter and its ilk are
important to your firm and senior professionals in your industry. Signing
up on a social media broadcast site gives you a chance to stay up to date
with the communication shared by companies and people who matter to you.
You can choose to be a fly on the wall for multiple conversations until you
are willing to join in and contribute. Once you are comfortable, you may
initiate broadcasts and form a strategy to build your own brand.
MYTH 4
Uploading pictures of my weekend
party is just harmless fun.
Photographs from your drunken
party won’t go down well with potential employers, who are seeking
responsible people to handle teams and projects. A seemingly professional
picture on LinkedIn is of no use if your social profile is populated with
images of immature, unflattering or borderline illegal behaviour. To
minimise the damage, control the privacy settings on every social media
activity that you engage in. Before uploading a picture or video, ask
yourself: will I be okay if this features on the front page of tomorrow’s
newspaper or on TV?
MYTH 5
What I read, write, like, buy
and recommend is no one’s business.
Though one tends to believe that
personal and professional lives are completely separate in both offline and
online spaces, it isn’t the truth. There is almost no distinction between
the two worlds on social media. Whatever you like, read, recommend, buy or
write on the Internet is available to anyone who wants to check on you. So,
racist comments, politically incorrect language and illegal behaviour are
likely to result in swift infamy. Abusing your boss or complaining about
company policies invariably reaches the employer’s ears. Such activities
are often proscribed by company rules and result in immediate dismissal. A
safe strategy is to carry on social media activity as if your employers and
clients have full access to your accounts.
MYTH 6
Online networking is as useless
as a cold call in sales.
Online networking has two
distinct advantages over cold sales calls. Firstly, it is a strong research
tool. You can use your network or social media search engine to quickly
build a comprehensive dossier on the target company and its people before a
meeting or sales pitch. Secondly, the platforms offer an additional layer
of trust when you reach out to a new person to connect with. Common friends,
groups, online communities and the credibility of the platform itself make
it far easier to get a response from a newcomer than is possible in
physical networking scenarios.
MYTH 7
Social content generation is for
marketing and media people only.
Blogs, questions and answers,
articles, videos, presentations, even informative comments, are part of the
content you can create and share with communities on social media.
Generating content will help you build reputation as an expert in your
field. Online reputation can be leveraged to your benefit when clients and
employers seek you out while searching for people in that space. The
benefits increase exponentially when you contribute more content across
platforms as the content is linked and picked up faster by search engines.
After a while, consider creating your own website to aggregate your
content. This will bring you exclusive traffic, which can further enhance
your professional brand.
DEVASHISH
CHAKRAVARTY The writer is CEO of Quetzal
Verify. ETW130617
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