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Social Media
Social media is a perfect tool to utilize as public relations majors. Different social media websites offer special ways to market and brand your image. The important thing is to create a positive image for yourself throughout all of your social media sites since these sites can be seen by anyone — including potential employers!
Facebook is a great marketing tool. When searching for a job, be sure to make your tagged photographs private so no one can see them. Also, keep up to date with your occupation and education sections of your profile. If done the right way, both of these sections should resemble the job experiences you put in your resume. When you are applying for jobs, you can also reach out to employers to show your interest in the company and create a two-way conversation on the social media site.
Twitter is another social media website that can allow for young adults to reach potential employers. Always ‘follow’ companies that you may be interested in one day applying to because this is a way to stay updated on the organization’s future plans and current events. A user can also tweet with hash–tags (#) what types of careers they are looking for and list some of their qualifications. Many jobs look for these hash-tags as a way to respond to people searching for a job.
Linked In is one of the best social media websites to utilize when networking. When creating an account, users can connect to previous employers and reach out to other employers in their career field. A user’s profile can include a resume as well as any other qualifications a person wants to list. The more people you know, the more people can view your linked in account.
Pinterest is a fast-growing popular social media website. The site allows for a user to create boards of things that have a common theme. For example, I have always wanted to be a wedding planner. Therefore, on my Pinterest, I have one of my boards dedicated to events and weddings that can give me ideas for future jobs. I also can use this site to show a potential employer what I want to do in the field to serve as a portfolio.
It is important to keep updating your social media sites and that all of them stay consistent. David Meerman Scott, public relations’ social media expert, has focused his recent work to social media and how companies are utilizing them to form relationships. As public relations majors, we should follow suit with this notion and build relationships with companies not only as clients, but as potential employers.
—Phyllis
