Social Media and Your Career

By Melissa A. Venable

Challenge Your Social Media Status Quo

This New Year isn’t so new anymore as the months pick up speed and calendars get full. One result is that my motivation for social media fades. I know I need to keep up, but as my time and energy start to wane, social media ends up on the back burner.

If you are like me, it may be time to refresh your approach. Luckily, there are a few small steps we can take to get back on track.

Set Up a Social Media Schedule
Develop a short list of social media tasks you want to accomplish every day, week, month, etc., and add them to your calendar. Social Media Today provides a sample checklist to get you started. Making decisions in advance about what you’ll do and when can take some of the anxiety out of the process.

Create New Content
Sharing what others share is effective, and easy, but mixing in your own original posts is important, too. Constant Contact created a 30-day content challenge with ideas like “Answer a question,” “Share something funny,” “Give a shout out to another organization,” and many more. Explore the suggestions and add a few to your schedule.

Find Some Inspiration
When is the last time you followed new accounts and hashtags? It may be time to add an influx of creativity to your social media feed. Another Social Media Today resource suggests five tools to find inspiration. One tool, Forecast, can help you find new events, while another, Feedly, helps you find new websites and forums.

What will it take to move you from passive to active with your social media accounts?

It’s absolutely okay to take a break from social media (I even recommend it), but don’t stay away too long. Whether you are searching for a job, building a community, or extending the reach of your career office, find a way to jump start your social media efforts.

Melissa A. Venable, guest edited the Career Development Network’s fall 2013 journal special issue on the topic of “Social Media and Career Development” and the spring 2017 special issue on “Careers and the Internet.” She is a writer and online education advisor for Higher-Education.com, and an online adjunct instructor for the University of South Florida and Saint Leo University. Contact her as follows: Melissa A. Venable, PhD e-mail: <melissa.a.venable@gmail.com> Twitter: @Melessa_Venable and @TechnologyTwins

Article originally published in the March/April 2019 edition of the Career Development Network Newsletter.

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