Social Media: Asset or Liability? The Choice is Yours!

Like it or not, we are right in the middle of what I like to call the Social Media Age.  The opportunities to exploit this social media are endless, but you have to be careful of what you are doing on your profiles.  This day in age, you can see what your favorite player or singer is doing with the push of a button.  While it's amazing what you can do with your phone or computer, it has also minimized everyone's privacy.

Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are all examples of social media that nearly everybody has.  You can use these tools to market yourself in a very beneficial way.  A vast majority of companies out there have a Twitter or a Facebook account.  You can follow these companies and be notified of job openings they might have.  You can also respond to their posts and possibly get your foot in the door.  Using LinkedIn, you can basically float your resume out there for any business to look at if they're interested.  This is a great way to get your name out there and market yourself to various companies.  Your Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn account should look professional so you can catch the eye of potential employers.

There is also a possibility that these social media applications could prevent you from getting an interview or hired.  Employers have began to start to use social media as a sort of employee screening process.  If a potential employer goes onto your Facebook account and finds a bunch of pictures of you partying, your chances of getting an interview have severely decreased.  A smart thing to do would be to go through all of your social media accounts and make sure your profile looks professional and would impress a potential employer if they were to visit it.  This is such a perfect way for you to go out and market yourself to any company you want.  You just have to put yourself in the employer's shoes and ask yourself if you would give yourself an interview from looking at your social media profiles.

Social media can be an asset or a liability to anybody.  This all depends on how you present yourself through your social media.  If you have a bunch of pictures of you out at a bar, an employer probably won't even give you a chance to interview.  This is why we need to take advantage of these opportunities that are presented to us.  The choice is all up to you on whether you want to use social media to further your career and get many more opportunities or if you just want to make it a joke and lose out on potential jobs and interviews.  If used correctly, social media could be one of your most valuable assets that you have.

Posted by: Nate Gaskill