How Is Your Professional Social Media Marketing?
Have you ever wondered about your professional social media marketing outlook? Does such a thing even exist? Well, ‘fasten your seat-belts’, this ride will help you see the view from a ‘bird’s eye’ perspective, especially coming from ‘way back in the past’, as this contributed article will illustrate.
As the cliche says - don't let your past come back to haunt you!
As the cliche goes, don’t let your past come back to haunt you!
Today’s 25 to 35-yr old people have a problem online. When they were teenagers, social media was new. It was exciting, and they were the first generation to use it. They didn’t worry about how their social media feeds would affect them in the future. It didn’t even occur to them that it would.
Now, many of this generation are starting their own online businesses, running blogs and applying for serious jobs. All of those posts from their teenage years are still out there. All the photos of drunken nights out at college are easy to find, and employers, clients and readers are checking.
Searching Facebook for a name is a quick and easy way to check out a potential employee, and it is being done. Even if you don’t work online, or you’ve since set your profiles to private, it’s still a good idea to grow a more professional social media presence. Here are some easy ways that you can do it.
Change Your Profile Pictures
Even if your profiles are private, there will be some things that everyone can see. The first is your profile picture. It’s how you make your first impression and your friends, followers, potential employers and everyone else that sees it uses it to make a judgment.
If you are a casual social media user, and you don’t need an online presence for work or business, then changing your drunken night out selfie for a gorgeous picture of you and your family or partner might be enough. But, if you do use your profiles for business, or your online life is a part of your job, you might want to hire a head shot photographer to help you to make the right first impression.
Change Your Email Address
Your email address is another thing that everyone else can see. When we set up email addresses all those years ago, it was to email our friends and sign into our MySpace accounts. We didn’t think we’d ever be putting them on CVs or using them to communicate with our utility providers. But, email is widely used today. Many companies no longer use paper post at all.
So, if you haven’t already, set up a simple Gmail account using your name, or a variation of it as your email address.
Post Less
When we first got online, we updated our Facebook friends with every detail of our lives. We told them what we were having for dinner and shared the songs we were playing on Spotify. You probably share a lot less nowadays, but you might still be oversharing.
If you want to appear more professional on social media, start sharing less of the mundane details of your life. Keep to posting about important events and sharing special photos of your family. If you want to create an even more professional image, start sharing news posts and scholarly articles.
Check Your Grammar
Poor spelling and punctuation never look professional. Take the time to write in proper English, with good spelling and grammar. Install Grammarly if you need help.
My Final Thoughts On How Is Your Professional Social Media Marketing?
It might seem simple enough, but it could be potentially harmful to the image you are trying to create. Take the time to ensure that the ‘image’ that is conveyed is one you can be proud to own. Make sure that your professional social media marketing is in place and makes your future outlook one you can smile about!
All the best.
Images courtesy of Pixabay and Unsplash.
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Hello Michelle,
Wow this an article full of food for thought. It is so true that as in all things in life..we have to be fully accountable for all our actions. And the premise is that we have to be prepared for whatever we decide to post.
Great job.
IN peace and gratitude ariel
Indeed, Ariel. We really need to be mindful of others – those being exposed to ‘our thoughts’ and interpretation as well being responsible for the outcome. Great points and thanks for sharing.
Michelle
Hello Michelle. I was never really a “social media person” but I totally get what you mean here. Teenagers do what they do, and not think about the future. This is a very good article – reminding the young adults to clean up your social media accounts.
Absolutely, Sharon. Young people sometimes throw ‘caution to the wind’ and then it sometimes comes back to ‘bite them in the butt’. We should all be wary of the things we do, not only as young people, but also as adults.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Michelle
You’re so right Michelle, back in the MySpace days who understood where social media was going? It is a double-edged sword lol. It takes thought, time and consistency to use it to one’s advantage!
True words well-said, Dianne. The ‘good ‘ole days’ indeed. And you are so right, social medial marketing can sometimes prove to be a double edged sword indeed. It does take time, consistency and focus – something which we don’t always have (speaking from my experience. Thanks for your thoughts.
Michelle
Your article makes some very good points. I have never been one to post a whole lot about what is going on in my life. It has been a while since I could say I knew everyone on my friends lists in real life. Now that I have an online business, Most of the people on my friends lists are people I have never laid eyes on.
I do find that scholarly articles are best left for my business pages, though. They can be a bit dry for most people, unless they are looking for such things. They don’t work well to increase engagement on my personal pages.
I would add that in the climate of things we live with today, it might be best to avoid posting things that are political. People tend to polarize and take their views and opinions very personally. Polite debate about the facts where people are able to agree to disagree is great, but more often than not you end up with people bashing each other and it ends up in childish name calling.
Hello Anita,
You have written some interesting points. Where does on really draw the line, one can ask themselves. Our society seems to have become so ‘lax’ when it comes to separating the relevance of some posts. We all need to be respectful and act accordingly. Thanks for sharing.
Michelle
Hi Michelle, That is a very relevant post, thanks very much for the topical information, Alan
Glad you found the information useful, Alan. All the best.
Michelle