You haven’t made up your mind about social media.
It’s just a way to unwind at the end of the day. Thinking of a good post takes too much time. It’s a waste of your energy. You’re only on Facebook to keep in touch with old friends. You started an Instagram profile to look through other people’s pictures—you fish for likes, but your posts barely ever hit double digits.
But you’ve got that one friend who always has something clever to say. Or these really great shots from their travels. Or who found their new job through LinkedIn. So you get it, something’s there. You’re just not sure how to tap into it.
Is social media worth your time? You’re undecided. You’ll keep posting occasionally and see what happens.
If this is your attitude, you’re never going to get anywhere. And if you’re smart, you’ll want the time you’ve already invested in social media to count for something. Like it or not, we’re all part of this “Social Media Generation” and there are many opportunities available for individuals who’ve mastered these new tools. This professional edge is important—especially at a time when employment options are limited.
For many people, leveraging your proficiency with social media to get a job can be crucial. Let’s face it: our parents’ generation is still pretty clueless about Facebook—forget Twitter or Instagram. But the benefits of growing up with social media are often overlooked. Too many people just see social media as an outlet for entertainment or for wasting time.
If you want to your social media savvy to mean something, you need to recognize that it is an investment; an investment you’ve probably poured thousands of hours into already. Take ownership of your ability to decipher good content from bad content. You’re already an expert in this field. Identify trends in what you post and how you portray yourself online: you are constantly creating an online brand for yourself—whether you acknowledge it or not.
Once you start looking at your social media presence as an investment, the next step is to decide to treat it like an investment.
Recognize and decide. What comes next is up to you: figuring out how much time you want to put into social media; which platforms you’re going to focus on mastering, what you’re looking to get out of the investment. Do you want to create a killer LinkedIn profile for the job market? Or establish a personal brand to support your career as an artist or designer? It’s up to you.
Social media provides a lot of opportunities to market yourself to the world. In the coming weeks, I’d like to talk about how people can use social media to empower themselves and others around them.
So if you’re interested in learning more, keep watching this space. I’ll be trying to post a short blog on the topic every week, for the next few months. And if you have any feedback about this project, or if you’d like to learn about something specific—please let me know!
Thanks for reading! 🙂
