The use of Social media is increasingly ubiquitous these days and most of us engage with one or more of the most popular platforms, either for leisure posts or for professional reasons.
Sensible use of social media can actually be a great professional boon if done correctly and can enhance your career prospects, but equally, posting the wrong sort of content in the public domain (rather than privately) could be detrimental to your career development.
In this blog we take a look at some of the pros and cons.
Most of us do use social media these days
Increasingly they do and it is likely that this practice will continue to increase.
Companies are most likely to be interested in any professional presence online such as tweeting on industry matters with an expert view, or publishing opinion. However, some firms will also look at social accounts – which they are perfectly entitled to do if the content is in the public domain.
So it is important to always to bear this in mind as what you post online could be viewed by current or any future employers.
Employers are also increasingly using social media to recruit as well – so developing a presence on sites like Linkedin and ensuring that your profile is well managed and up to date, can lead to recruiters contacting you direct.
Employers are increasingly using social media as a recruitment tool
You do of course have the right to be totally private but many recruiters will take a look at your Linkedin profile for example and if you have a specific expertise in your field – it is highly appropriate to have a professional presence on a platform like Twitter.
There is a very small risk that having no social media presence at all can look almost suspicious and make recruiters think you may have something to hide!
For any non work related content, it is very important to check your privacy settings on your accounts. It is fine and probably preferable to keep these hidden.
There are a range of very obvious offensive things that you shouldn’t tweet or post but also avoid posting information about your current job, colleagues or boss.
The same applies to your general social media activity. If you have a history of adding lots of non professional posts during business hours, that also sends a bad message. It is easy to spend a very short amount of time looking through a social media account and immediately finding out a LOT of information about an individual.
There is no law against posting hundreds of pictures of your inebriated nights out on the town with your friends, but ask yourself, would this give the absolute best professional view of you to someone who was looking to hire you for a job? Possibly not. So make sure that this content is kept private.
Posting about interests and hobbies can be good – but anything too extreme or offensive or defamatory is clearly a no no.
Be careful what you post!
If you DO post – make sure you are up to date.
A neglected professional twitter account is not a good advert for your expertise and implies you may not be up to date with industry trends.
It is useful to make connections and do appropriate networking, particularly via twitter and Linkedin. Many people have found their next jobs in this way so reach out to useful contacts.
If you are considering a job hunt, we suggest that you carry out a social media housekeeping exercise first:
AND don’t forget – if used astutely, Social Media can be a positive!
Using social media can be positive!
If you are planning the next step in your financial services career, then get in touch with us today. We have a range of great opportunities available.
