Are you keeping a high profile with your social media sites? Tech professionals are expected to be savvy about keeping an updated, professional online presence. It can be particularly important to keep up good social networks when you’re searching for new job opportunities – especially on sites such as Linkedin. In addition, Facebook and Twitter have both recently made changes that could impact your chances of making the best first impression online.
That’s why today, we’re offering some basic best practices to help you keep a handle on your social media sites. We all know we should be reviewing our social profiles on a regular basis to keep our online reputation professional and polished. Recruiters and hiring managers are searching Google and social media sites, not only as a basic search, but looking for a good cultural fit for their organization.
Smart tech professionals will make the right impression online with the following best practices:
1) Always monitor your existing profiles. You need to be checking in at least once per week, and Google your name at least that often. This is the bare minimum, because if something unprofessional or unflattering content comes up on a social profile you’ll want to catch and remove it right away.
2) If your Google results aren’t flattering, create new profiles – a professional blog, a professional Facebook page, the Twitter account you haven’t set up yet, or maybe a Google+ profile – to replace them or drive anything negative further down the list in the search engine results. It’s also a good idea to create and regularly update profiles to create something to find, if you don’t have anything come up at all. Remember, this is you personal brand and will create the first impression many hiring managers have of you.
3) Curating your online photos is so important – even for tech professionals. The photos on your social media sites can make or break your reputation. The most important thing to remember? When in doubt, don’t post that photo. Delete tagged photos that are questionable. More people are doing this proactively, and you should be, too. (This is an important topic, so watch more tips for job seekers about graphics and photos coming in future blogs.)
4) Keep your personal and professional separate. Seems obvious, right? But this best practice can be much harder than it sounds, because you don’t want to have boring social sites with absolutely no personal touch. Strike the right balance by using a friendly tone with your posts, but keeping keep all content and the language completely professional. Also, you can include your family and friends on professional social networks, but just be sure that they don’t inadvertently undermine your efforts by posting inappropriately. It helps if you have a conversation with people in person, and just explain that you want your social sites to stay professional.
5) A few words about content: You can choose to post and share non-work related content – such as funny articles – to share your personality and interests, be but be sure that you aren’t doing it most of the time. The majority of your posts should be helpful, informative, or industry-news related. You can also use about 10 – 20 percent of your posts to promote yourself, but don’t go overboard. Too much self-promotion looks like too much self-promotion.
6) Watch the timeliness of your social posts. Do update your sites when you’ve earned a major accomplishment, are changing job descriptions, or experienced an important professional shift. Don’t post a lot during work hours if you have a job to do. Make sure industry news and other content is relevant and current. Also, don’t forget to follow up in a timely manner if someone reaches out to you through your social sites or posts something that would be a good idea to share.
Bonus social media best practice for tech professionals: Visit us online at the Market Street Talent social media sites on Facebook, Twitter (@MarketSt_Talent), Linkedin, and Google+. It’s a great way to stay in touch with us, and stay on top of the most recent job listings and industry news. We invite you to join our network, and stay in touch!