How Your Facebook Page Can Help Your Career
Your Facebook page can do serious damage to your professional life — and if you doubt it, ask any of the countless individuals who have posted drunk, slovenly photos to their social media accounts, only to find that those images coming back to bite them during job interviews. An unprofessional demeanor, even on a personal Facebook account, can land you “red flag” status among recruiters and potential employers. As such, it is not any great surprise to note that lists of what not to post on Facebook abound; go to most any online careers site and you will surely find one!
Knowing what not to post on Facebook is important, but it only tells half the story. True enough: A social media account can hurt your career — but it can also help it. You can actually use your social media pages as resources and platforms for establishing yourself as a respectable and well-rounded individual. The question is how.
Post Your CV
One thing job-seekers should absolutely do is to make sure their resumes or CVs are posted to Facebook — perhaps in the form of a link to your LinkedIn profile. This may seem a bit superfluous — why post your resume to Facebook when you could simply tell employers to go straight to the LinkedIn page? Posting your professional credentials to Facebook comes with a couple of important advantages, however. First, it is helpful for potential employers and recruiters who actually find you through Facebook. Second, it indicates that you are serious about your career, and it makes it pretty evident that you are, in fact, seeking employment.
Highlighting Your Assets
You do not have to stop with the resume or CV, however. You might also use Facebook as a platform for highlighting some of your professional interests and your areas of particular expertise. Are there professional organizations and associations to which you belong? If so, “like” those pages on Facebook. The same goes with academic honor groups to which you might belong. Highlighting these involvements helps you to show off your professional passions in a way that a mere CV may not allow.
On the Personal Side
Finally, remember that, on a resume, it is generally considered inappropriate to talk about your hobbies, your extracurricular activities, your family life, and so on — but you can use your social media pages to effectively show how well-rounded, charitable, family-minded, and human you are. Highlight charities and non-profits that you support — including photos of yourself, actively participating with those groups, if possible. Include some family photos and even some snapshots of yourself engaged in a few favorite hobbies. All of this can help you come across as more relatable and more versatile in the minds of recruiters.
The bottom line is that social media can make or break your career prospects — and smartly implementing Facebook is as much about knowing what to post as it is knowing what not to post. Optimize your Facebook page today, and make sure it is casting you in the best light possible.
Mike Zammuto leads a team of experts providing personal reputation management services at www.reputationchanger.com. Prior to joining Reputation Changer, he was the COO of ChaCha. Earlier in his career, he worked on .NET 3.0 at Microsoft.
Image Credit: Shutterstock.com
Category: Personal Branding
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