Looking to make your social media presence job-ready? You know what your resume says about you. But what are your social media accounts saying to employers?
With the use of social media growing so quickly, have you stopped to think about how your use of it could affect your career? Employers are now equipped with teams and tools to quickly find your social media profiles, so they can assess you and how you present yourself.
Employers today aren’t limited to a resume, handshake, or interview as their first impression of you. It’s becoming more common that they go deeper, and it’s never been easier to do so.
Building a job-ready social media presence involves creating a professional, consistent, and engaging online persona that reflects your skills, experience, and interests.
Increase your employability based on your online profiles. Here are our five top tips for making sure your social media represents the best version of you when you’re on the job hunt for professional opportunities.
1. Audit Your Current Social Media Profiles
Remove personal or controversial content. Take down any social media posts that you wouldn’t want an employer or recruiter to see. Anything overly personal or posts that broach subjects you wouldn’t talk about at work should come down. Remove posts that show nudity or that suggest drug use or illegal activity—even if they’re memes or jokes. Remember to check photo galleries, including previous profile pictures.
2. Use More Professional Pictures
This step is quite important because the photos you post online are vital to your presentation and how people view you. Use a high-quality, professional-looking profile photo. Ensure it is consistent across all platforms. As a first impression, it's best to make it a great one. Having some professional-looking photos in work attire or professional headshots taken for profiles. It shows commitment, effort, and willingness. It also allows employers to get a feel of what you would be like in their workplace.
3. Update Your Profile Pictures and Descriptions
Update your profile pictures across all social media sites, and use the same professional photo for all profiles. Then, an employer who looks at any of your profiles immediately sees a professional image, and it’s obvious that all your profiles belong to the same person, which avoids confusion. Update your About Me descriptions on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to say that you’re looking for opportunities. Include the type of position you’re looking for, and add an email address and/or phone number so recruiters who see your profile can get in touch with you.
4. Create Engaging Content
Do you enjoy content creation? Creating content relevant to your field of work or study could be a major boost to your job hunt and visibility to employers. This gives employers an idea of what you can offer and shows a greater understanding.
Always make sure to cross-reference anything you are making to ensure accuracy, whether it be an article, video, or podcast. Posting work that is not accurate or incorrect in parts will not look good. Likewise, well-planned and created content will greatly boost your personal brand and allow you to sell yourself.
A great platform for sharing this sort of content is LinkedIn, where employers actively search for employees and want to know what they are capable of. This is the most effective way of showing capabilities and understanding quickly.
5. Optimize Your Profiles
6. Showcase Achievements and Projects
7. Tweet or Post Your Elevator Pitch
Write a short “elevator pitch” that mentions the kind of job you’re looking for and highlights your main qualifications. Feature this elevator pitch at the top of your LinkedIn profile, right under your photograph. Rewrite your elevator pitch as a tweet and as a Facebook post. Pin the tweet to the top of your profile (using the menu at the top-right corner of the tweet). Pin the post to the top of your Facebook timeline, too, and make sure the post is set to public. Then if employers view any of your profiles, your elevator pitch is one of the first things they see.
8. Link to your LinkedIn Profile or Professional Website
Insert a link to your LinkedIn profile in all your other social media profiles. If you have a professional website, add the link to that website as well. Recruiters who come across one of your profiles might want to see your resume or learn more about your experience. Providing a link makes this easy and convenient for them.
9. Use keywords
Keywords aren’t just for resumes! Position yourself as an expert on social media by integrating job-related keywords into your posts. For example, you could share news articles about the hospitality industry or post tips about your area of knowledge, whether that’s operations, culinary arts, or any other department. A good way to work in keywords on Twitter is to join a Twitter chat, where participants use a common hashtag to discuss fields like marketing or accounting.
10. Interact With Organizations
With social media becoming so widespread, you can contact almost any organization online and receive a swift response. Did you know this process could be beneficial to your career? This shows confidence, productiveness, and eagerness.
Ways that you could interact with an organization include asking questions about topics, goods, or services relevant to them, which shows eagerness to learn and grow. Another form of interaction could be writing reviews or filming reviews about their products or services, which shows confidence and an ability to make informed decisions.
A final way is to show support for them by sharing their content, reacting, and responding to posts, as this shows you are engaged and paying attention to their company values. As a very basic start to networking, it is still opening a line of communication and leaving an online footprint.
11. Interact with other hospitality professionals
Write replies to other hospitality professionals’ tweets and posts. Retweet, like, and share what other people in the industry have written. This shows an employer who may be browsing your profile that you are involved in conversations within the industry. You may also meet some new contacts this way who might give you a heads-up about new job openings and opportunities.
12. Always Have a LinkedIn Presence
LinkedIn is one of the best online platforms for professional networking and is versatile in what you can achieve. As a job seeker, you may be wondering how you can get the best use out of LinkedIn. It’s simple. Be active and engaged, and always check your account at least daily, so you can respond to messages or tagged posts.
You don’t want to miss an opportunity because you weren't active for an extended period. Engage with posts, people, and organizations regularly. This is the main purpose of LinkedIn, and it shows confidence and communication skills. Finally, be consistent. If you post, make sure it is regular for the best outcomes. It shows you can manage time, meet deadlines, and be consistent with your work.
13. Be Consistent and Active
14. Monitor Your Online Presence
15. Prepare for Job Applications
Protect Your Online Identity When Job Seeking
These simple steps could help you land your next position with an amazing company. It never hurts to enrich your professional brand by polishing your image, and the steps provided could be your key to achieving this, along with protecting your digital content. It’s never too late to review your social media presence and show potential employers you hold more than the skills they're looking for.
Future accounting jobs will require dedicated professionals ready to evolve alongside the industry. Don’t let yourself be left behind — learn more about how you can gain the skills that can bring your career to the next level by enrolling with Get Trained Get Hired. If you need any assistance in preparing your resume or you need more specific interview guidelines that best suit your personal requirements to have a breakthrough in the Canadian job market reach out to Gettrainedgethired.com to book a free 30-Minute career counseling meeting. At Gettrainedgethired.com we provide you with the necessary training to learn practical skills to become an accountant. Our training is based on practical real-life cases. After the training, we work on your resume and try to place you in accounting firms through our network. You will also get access to like-minded individuals who are looking for jobs through our WhatsApp group. Please feel free to contact us at [email protected]. Or call us at 647-275-7150
Disclaimer: The information provided on this page is intended to provide general information. The information does not consider your situation and is not intended to be used without consultation from professionals. Salman Randhawa and Gettrainedgethired.com will not be held liable for any problems that arise from the usage of the information provided on this page.