By Katelyn S. Irons | Echo
A wise man builds his house on rock; a wiser man builds his career on a platform. Building a platform is key to working in this technological age. Potential bosses want to hire people who are professional and connected to technology. If you can bring a following to the company that is looking at hiring you, they are more likely to want you on their team. Sites like Twitter, Google Plus, Facebook and LinkedIn up your professionalism and optimize your online presence. These tips will help you construct a strong platform that will build you up, not drag you down.
Twitter:
Twitter is a leveling tool in the field of social media. When people look at your tweets, they don't care about how big your audience is-they care about what you're saying. The building block of a good tweet is good content. Never try to make up for poor content with optimizer tools (hashtags). But hashtags are important! These tags group your tweet with every other tweet that has the same tag. Because of how these connect you with people, you might be surprised who retweets you.
The next thing you can do to optimize your Twitter is to send your tweets to specific people. When you attend a conference or meet someone who is interesting, connect with them by tagging them in a post (Ex: @KatelynSIrons). You will be surprised how many influential people are happy to have you engaging with them online.
You might even see your tweets being posted by people you don't know.
Facebook:
If you want to present a seamless, professional appearance on Facebook, make sure all of your photos represent you in a way that is personable, at least semi-professional and appropriate. Untag yourself or remove any photos that you wouldn't want your boss to see. Feel free to keep photos shared just with friends by putting your friends in a list and changing the privacy settings to share photos only with them.
Overall, just remember: once it's online, it's always online!
LinkedIn:
The most important social networking site to get on while in college is LinkedIn. This website allows you to link up with all of the people you know, post your resume, show off portfolio projects and gain recommendations that reflect on your performance. First, put up a headshot that shows your face and upper body in a professional outfit. Follow these guidelines on the perfect headshot.
Go through your email contacts and connect with all of them. After you do this, there will be suggestions of people you know. LinkedIn has a great tutorial which will walk you through pretty much everything that you should put on your account. Once you have optimized your online resume and portfolio, you can quickly identify people who would be able to recommend you for a job you did or a project you worked on.
