Monday, October 18, 2010

Presenting a Professional Face with Social Media

Below is an excert of my article in the Fall 2010 edition of The Bulletin produced by the Contact Point website. This issues theme is Social Media and the Career Development field and there are several excellent articles regarding social media and job search. Feel free to check them out here http://bit.ly/bL6A68

Presenting a Professional Face with Social Media

As an employment consultant one of the fun parts of my job is to introduce people to this new world called social media and something that I continue to stress is the importance of appearing professional.

Just as we would advise a client to pay attention to how they look when dropping off resumes or going to an interview, the same attention needs to be paid on how they -- and we -- present ourselves online.

We are aware that employers are actively using social media to look up clients. What people don’t realize is how easy and common it is to make mistakes. Just a few minutes looking at the popular hashtag #resume on Twitter will give you plenty of examples of what not to do.

Another factor is that technology has made it easier for us to make mistakes. Right now from the desktop app that I currently use, I can upload status content to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn all with one click. And while this can make it easier to stay up-to-date on the different sites, there is a down side: unfinished or unprofessional content can be shared across these sites with one click.

While assisting clients with their immersion into tweets, blogs, forums and networking sites there are three things I remind them of to make their experience enjoyable and yet maintains a professional appearance in the eyes of any employers they may meet.


Follow the link to discover just what those 3 things are: http://bit.ly/bB06dC

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