Modern-day professionalism extends far beyond wearing a suit to the office. A large percentage of employers look at your social profile before hiring you; some of them continue to look once you fill the position, so a simple one-time clean-up isn’t an option.
Keeping your social media professional at all times will ensure you have your best foot forward online. How do you know what’s okay and what isn’t? The Success City Online social media experts are here to give you our favorite tips on having professional social media profiles!
Table of Contents
1. Start with a Party Purge
What do you think looks better: a candidate with her headshot or one with her head in a toilet as her profile picture? Almost every employer will be turned off by frequent photos of you partying. No one wants to hire a candidate who’s likely to call out sick because of a hangover.
To avoid making employers think this of you, do a party purge. Go through each social media account and remove recent posts about going out (things such as invites to clubs, reminiscing over how crazy last night was, etc.) and any photos of you intoxicated. If you wouldn’t show it to your grandmother, take it off social media.
2. Google Yourself
Google collects data from all over the internet and pushes up what it feels is most relevant, but not necessarily the nicest. That means you may not necessarily know what information others can find about you.
Everything from embarrassing high school photos to your full home address can be found online. Give yourself a quick Google check to make sure nothing uncomfortable is appearing on the first page or so of results. If you’re trying to appear more professional online, you may need to appeal to Google to remove certain results.
3. Update Every Single Social Media Profile
As any digital marketing or social media manager will tell you, fresh content is king online. People don’t trust people who have outdated profiles. The modern world insists on knowing what you’re up to.
Appearing professional doesn’t just mean cleansing your social media of unprofessional things – it also means adding positive posts! Clear photos of you being social (but not partying!) or engaging posts indicating your interests are great ways of signaling ‘I’m an upstanding person you can do business with’. Just don’t post too much – daily posts sometimes signal you have nothing better to do! If you have trouble balancing your frequency, consider working with a social media specialist to have them figure it out for you!
4. Remember Your Grammar Lessons
You (hopefully) don’t sign off emails with ‘thx’, so why have it on your social media profiles? One of the biggest mistakes we see burgeoning professionals make on their pages is not having proper grammar. Text speak never looks good, so avoid it anywhere your business can possibly be associated with. Facebook, Twitter, and especially LinkedIn should have proper punctuation and spelling throughout.
5. Be Yourself, But Better
Social media is about expressing yourself. We’ve listed a lot of what not to do (use text speak, post pictures of you blacked out, etc.) but what you should do is post content representing how you want to appear. If you want to come across as a no-nonsense professional, post business articles instead of baby bunny photos.
More of an artistic type? Posts of current projects can engage like-minded individuals. Navigating the delicate balance of being authentic but also appropriate can be challenging. Don’t forget you have social media experts at the tip of your fingers – all it takes is one call to Success City Online to start having the social media presence you want!
