We have seen how social media has begun to infiltrate our society through all of the social networking sites that are popping up everyday. Since this new phenomenon there has been quite a lot of chatter about how social networks can help job-seekers or cause problems.
It seems a couple of times a year we hear news reports and stories about teens and college-aged students posting pictures or writing comments on Facebook, Twitter, etc. that have caused problems. We are constantly warned to be extremely cautious in what we put out there for our friends to see because one you enter the job market business professionals can easily search for and see everything that has been put out there. It is scary to think that once something goes on the web, it is there forever - there is no getting it back. And once something gets passed on to one person - it's like a virus because that person passes it on to five people and those five people pass it on to another five people and before you know it millions of people have viewed it. We hear stories on the news about celebrities who have tweeted ill-feelings about another person or made threats or seen how tweets can just be misconstrued and come across in a negative light.
Having said all of that, it is hard to only argue the negative side of social media because it's positive side has so many things to offer. First of all, social media is free! (unless of course, you opt to use the paid version). You can completely build an entire profile and "resume" online all for free. In the past you had to seek out specific jobs and apply to each one individually. Although this method should not be completely neglected, social media should be your main focus because now hundreds of business professionals who work for hundreds of different companies can see who you are, your experiences, and skills without you having to specifically hand-pick them and send them out individually. It was interesting to me, in the articles we read online, how the author stated more than once that you need to "build a brand for yourself." Building a brand for yourself based on your strengths, and then "decide on a personal brand statement" which could be a picture or some sort of avatar representing who you are. As a marketing major, I am so used to hearing about the best ways to market certain items and categories - choosing the right target market and using the correct distribution channel, that I never even thought about how that could apply to marketing yourself. But this only makes sense. We build our brand based on who we are, our strengths, what we're interested in and passionate about, and what experiences we have had and then we build off of that. We want to appeal to business professionals and companies that might be a good fit for us where we know we will be able to contribute, and we also want to use the right "distribution channel" to do that - social media.
It's hard for me to believe that business professionals have time to spend on looking for new-hires and job applicants online and social media sites, but I keep hearing over and over again that this is the way to do it now so some of it has got to be true. I believe that social media is great way to search for jobs and just get your name out there. Even if professionals don't end up contacting you after you posted "laid off - looking for a job," some of your friends might see it and mention it to one of their friends and then you can start networking. We just need to keep in mind that whatever we choose to put on the Internet has the possibility to be seen by some people we might not want it to be seen by. But I'd rather be cautious and keep my name out of trouble, than to neglect social media all together and perhaps miss out on the best way to find a job.
I agree with you about once things are posted online it's like a virus. Think about how many YouTube videos have become famous within days. It's like that Andrew Dodson video. That thing spread like wild fire! Once something hits the web, which can be a good or bad thing. In the Dodson's case, it was good because they got famous and some money off of it. But it can also be bad say if someone blogs when they are angry and writes inappropriate things, which does happen often. People just need to be aware of what they post!
ReplyDelete