How Understanding Social Media Can Boost Your Career — No Matter What Field You Work In

Job Search, Networking, Resume and LinkedIn

My husband came home from his first day at his new dream job with the best “I told you so” news I had ever been able to hold over him. Yes, I know this sounds petty and I’m fully aware that you shouldn’t keep score in your marriage. All that wisdom aside, I was thrilled with my victory.

After years of trying to convince him of the value of using social media to share his expertise, I had only been moderately successful by getting him to set up a LinkedIn account. (See, I can admit my failures as well!) Now, one of his first assignments with this new organization required him to set up a personal Twitter account for the purpose of sharing work-related posts. (Happy dance!)

Clearly his new place of employment understands the value of their employees’ knowledge and trusts them enough to empower them. Yup, definitely a dream job.

So here’s a couple of questions for you. One, do you value your own knowledge and two, do you empower yourself to share your knowledge?

If you believe you have valuable knowledge that others can benefit from, why wouldn’t you do everything you can to share it?Experts become in-demand based on their knowledge and the fact that other people are aware of their knowledge.

Ding, ding, ding! Did you catch that? Put very simply, if you don’t tell people what you know, they won’t know you know it. When they know you know it, they’ll want to work with you.

My husband’s organization understands that the more they prove they have expert employees, the more their audience will trust what the organization says and does, thus leading to more of their audience wanting to work with them and, therefore, a better bottom line.

Using social media professionally is a great way to begin (or expand) the proof of your knowledge, so here are some key tips for how to do that.

 

1. Understand What Social Media Is

Quite simply, social media is the use of technology to communicate and share interactive dialogue.

If what you post doesn’t entice others to interact and engage with you, then you’ve done it wrong. Every time you go to post, consider the possible interactions that might result from your post. Will someone share it? Will someone reply? Will it cause someone to perform a desired action?

Don’t post just to post — post to add value to others. What do others need/want to know about what you do professionally? That’s what will make you stand out and help to boost your career.

 

2. Understand That Quality Is Better Than Quantity

One of the biggest concerns I hear clients say is that they don’t have enough time to use social media to build their professional image. This concern usually stems from believing they have to be on every single social media site out there. No one has time for that!

A quick look at the Conversation Prism by Brian Solis will leave anyone feeling overwhelmed by the options of social platforms. There is no way to participate in every option available. You need to focus on the platform(s) best for your career and focus on quality connections as well as quality information sharing.

How do you know which platforms are truly best for you? That’s a post in itself, but in general you need to find out who should be hearing what you have to share and determine where they hang out online. That’s where you need to focus your energy to make the biggest impact on your career.

Look for other people in your industry and see where they’re participating and how successful they’ve been at generating interaction.

 

3. Understand the Difference Between Personal Posting and Professional Boosting

I can’t emphasize the importance of this tip enough. If what you are posting will not add value to your career, keep it on your personal and private accounts.

Unless your goal is be known for your association with adorable puppies, there’s no need to share such photos on your professional social media accounts. (Tweet this thought.)

When you’re trying to establish yourself as an expert in your industry, or even merely proficient enough to hire, you need to remain focused on the bigger picture.

Essentially you’re working to develop an online portfolio for your career by sharing your knowledge and what you have to offer clients or employers. It’s okay to share the occasional post that shows a more personable side of yourself, but it shouldn’t be the focus of your professional portfolio.

 

4. Understand the Power of Promoting Others

Ever heard that you’re the average of the five people you associate with the most? Make sure those that you associate with online are of high quality.

First you need to identify the other key players in your industry. Who are the trendsetters, the ones who get a lot of attention, the up-and-comers, the award-winners, etc.? Find out who is making waves in your industry and connect with them.

Share what the best are doing; if they’re smart, they’ll be listening — and, just as importantly, others will be listening. If you share posts from industry leaders, it will help put you on their radar and they’ll want to get to know you better. When others see you sharing information of the top in the industry, they’ll realize you know your stuff.

Purely by association of sharing their posts, you can start to show your level of industry knowledge. Plus, you’ll probably learn even more about your industry that will lead to your own original posts that show your expertise and can help boost your career potential.

 

Parting Words

So remember, when you’re looking to boost your career, consider how social media can play a role in building up your online portfolio. By making your posts engaging, focusing on a few quality platforms, keeping your personal life private and associating with industry leaders, you’ll soon have an online presence that makes you a go-to expert in your own right.

How has social media changed your career? Share in the comments!

Image: Flickr

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