HOW TO: USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR BUSINESS

As a Blogger it's safe to say I LOVE social media for certain things and not so much when it involves bloggers bashing other bloggers but that's another story.

For me, my online persona is carefully curated and I will rarely wade in on anything that makes me look unprofessional. I kind of treat it as an extension of my CV to a certain extent as even though it's all private/outside of work content, I would never want my employer or any brands to be unhappy with something I had written.

Here's how I approach each of the different platforms;

This is really the primary business networking tool which you will come across. I often get asked about whether you should put any blog information on there and my honest answer is that it's really dependent on your content. I predominantly write a beauty and lifestyle blog and there is nothing on there really that I would mind people from work seeing. I am never too graphic or derogatory and I do believe that it demonstrates good discipline and time management skills being able to do everything associated with blogging alongside a demanding full time job.

For me, LinkedIn is a great platform to network and connect with like minded individuals. A lot of job opportunities can be found there so I ensure my content is up to date and I interact with my contacts on there, whether it be via recommendations for other friends and contacts or just to simply keep in touch.

I also connect with the Beauty PRs I know so that they get a flavour of what I am all about which is a 30 something full time employee, an average kind of woman really!

Yammer

This won't apply to many of you but Yammer is Microsoft's Business Networking tool... be sure to save this for business content only if your organisation uses it!!

Twitter

Twitter can be a platform that sucks you in and before you know it you have expressed several opinions that *may* have been better to keep to yourself....

I use Twitter as a more informal social media site, however I tend not to write any opinions that are too extreme or controversial. I take a common sense approach to also thinking to myself - would my employer be offended by anything I have written? They wouldn't care about the various memes or animal videos I share and I use Twitter the most when promoting my blog posts.

Facebook

I am friends with a few people from work and apart from learning what my name says about me or what biscuit I am, there is very little on there apart from photos etc! It's always worth having you privacy settings on lock down just incase.

The amount of HR cases I have seen though where people very stupidly write derogatory statements about work just baffles me!

Instagram

Much the same as Facebook, my Instagram feed is scenic shots, selfies and memes. Nothing too out there and I'm sure all very boring to most.. 😂

Watch-Outs

If you are job hunting and have 'those' uni albums of you downing a bottle of tequila or sat in a pool of your own vomit, just have a think about how you would feel if a potential employer saw them.. probably quite embarrassed, avoid this by changing your privacy settings!

Google yourself. Not because you are vain but to see what is out there! Hi Bebo or MySpace pages from back in the day where you have a sweeping emo fringe and proclaim that ~~*nO oNE UnDeRStanDs yOU*~~ And let's face it, let's not reopen *those* old wounds with your friends as to who make the top six as that sh!t was cold.

Have a think about how you would feel if your manager printed your twitter statuses and made you read them out loud to them. If there are any below the belt tweets, either turn on protected tweets or delete.

If you are a blogger, this applies to you too!! The amount of seriously bitchy tweets I see is unreal and if you think that will make PRs want to work with you then think again!!!

I hope you have found this post useful :)

SWEETIESAL