Social media has opened up entirely new ways that we people connect and communicate. It seems that virtually everyone is now using one or many different social media sites/apps. The following is a basic formula for success in the simultaneous quests for social media activity and privacy. Since economic prosperity is the single biggest motivation for active social media participation, the main focus of this discussion will center on that same topic.
How social media can help you get or lose a job
Like virtually any modern life endeavor, newly launched business success is highly dependent on whether such ventures can locate qualified talent quickly. By the same token, the long-term economic viability of well-established large firms depends highly on maximized cost-efficiency and effectiveness in every expense category. Thus, it’s hardly a wonder why for-profit commercial enterprises have lately sought refuge in high-tech social media venues by the droves. Besides exponentially greater market exposure that enhances brand name recognition to an infinite degree, online businesses can form and maintain strategic partnerships and customer relations at a very low cost.
Consequently, it’s very likely that your boss is literally looking over your shoulder every second of each workday. Likewise, prospective employers are constantly looking at your profile to see if you’re a good match for their latest labor needs.
Recruitment is among the most important social media applications in today’s workplace. The primary reason is that social media enables firms to pre-screen job applicants, maximize job vacancy advertisement and attract candidates who are excellent cultural matches.
To put things into proper context with respect to how social media can help job hunters, feast your eyes on the following 2015 statistics:
- One out of six workers used social media to find their job
- 8,000,000 Americans obtained their current positions via Twitter
- 10,200,000 Americans claim LinkedIn helped them land their present jobs
- 18,400,000 Americans say they found current employment via Facebook
- Up to 94% of HR personnel utilize social media to recruit new talent
Improving work performance
Almost 25% of workers resign solely because their employers don’t offer sufficient training and skills development opportunities. That’s also why U.S. organizations spend billions per year to train and onboard personnel. Proper social media usage can decrease those same costs dramatically.
Likewise, full-time remote employment opportunities were once thought purely theoretical science fiction fantasies. That is, until recently, when that very same workplace environment became entirely possible solely due to high-tech electronic tools. Especially those made freely available via Internet-based social media networks.
Social media sites are by definition very different from their traditional counterparts. They are platforms that make consumers direct participants, thereby converting media audience members into media creators. This not only affords tremendous cost savings, but facilitates immensely greater work productivity, thanks to specialized social media apps like project management and virtual collaboration venues.
Privacy concerns
Per a report published in late 2013 over 11 million residents of the U.S. and U.K. committed what’s commonly dubbed “virtual identity suicide” by permanently deleting their Facebook accounts. Nearly half of those former social media fans cited privacy concerns as the main motive for the drastic move.
Thus, to fully capitalize from the vast benefits of modern social media, you must first know the basics to minimize potential snares that come with online communities. An ideal first step is to set up separate personal and business profiles. Each social media virtual persona should display very different content that’s designed to serve equally diverse specific purposes. While personal social media profiles target friends and family, business profiles must always remain strictly about business, by having nothing personal about them. Secondly, adjust privacy settings to prevent search engines from detecting your personal social media profile content. Finally, maintain two separate sets of business and personal contact data. Make the former publicly visible, while the latter must remain visible only to close friends and family.
By following the above-listed simplistic steps you can have the very best of all social media worlds with the least possible risk of loss.