How to Use Social Media to Help You Professionally

Welcome to the world stage, the internet! A playing field so leveled that 14 year old has just as much of a chance at getting rich as a 22 year old college graduate. Don’t believe me, take Isabella Weems, founder for Origami Owl, who at age 14 generated 24 million in revenue in 2012 and this year is expected to reach 250 million (Klegman, 2014).  Want to be famous; it’s now more assessable than ever. You no longer have to flaunt extravagant toys, live scandalous lives and appear on the Late Show to taste fame.  Today’s fame seekers stay up all night liking, sharing, posting, replying and hash tagging  their way into our hearts and souls.  Social media stars are not usually our favorite people in the world. We scroll our newsfeed and come across a picture of them with a headline that goes something like “Barbie goes through Ken’s cell phone without his permission and YOU WOULDN’T BELIEVE WHAT SHE DISCOVERED”. Gosh, how can you not want to know what Barbie discovered in Ken’s cell phone? Then you click on the story only to wish you had back those 2 minutes of your life. This has happened to me so many times that all I could do is wonder why I am so infatuated by these people who are just famous for being famous. But when you really take time to look social media from a business standpoint, something truly magical is happening in the information age. Sure we can go out and buy some pitchforks and rope and crucify Barbie for bombarding our eyes with pics of her amazing bikini body and Ken’s spectacular life. Or we can appreciate the fact that they have over a million followers and have never been on television a day in their life.

What does that mean for a small business or a business professional? If it can happen for Barbie and Ken, it can happen for you!  The secret is knowing your own personal brand and communicating it effectively. Every day, individuals are using social media to advance their careers and reputation by deploying strategies that get us wanting to know them on a personal level. Your brand is your identity, image and reputation all rolled up in one and you have complete control of it when it comes to social media (Vernuccio, 2014). You also have the largest pool of consumer’s one click away. A coffee shop can be selling coffee at their brick and mortar location and interactively selling coffee beans on their Facebook page. That’s what social media is, an interactive approach to doing business. Social media is also a tool for communicating important information throughout a company. If you are a corporate executive and want to keep an effective dialogue between you and your stakeholders, put your news and pertinent information in a company blog. The most important aspect of social media is that it gives you closeness with your customers and colleagues. Social media was created to be relational, and if you treat it as such you will create bonds with your audience that is deeper than them just liking a picture on your profile.

References

Klegman, S. (2014, February 14). The New Famous: Hollywood vs. Social Media. Retrieved from Huffington Post, The Blog: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-klegman/the-new-famous-hollywood-_b_4770716.html

Vernuccio, M. (2014). Communicating Corporate Brands Through Social Media: An Exploratory Study. Journal of Business Communication. Jul2014, Vol. 51 Issue 3,, 211-233.

Designing a Blog

You don’t want to have a lot of bells and whistles when you design your blog. You want to remember that you are conveying information so too much stuff can clutter your page or even worse, distort the functionality of your blog (Stauffer, 2008). So my tip for designing a blog is keep it simple. Let you blog be simple to the eye and easy to read. The visual effects might actually take away from your information. It would be helpful to use bold yet simple text so the content catches the eye. Lastly, in your design, don’t be afraid of having white space. No color at is better than too much color. Consider putting your widgets in the white space instead of filling it with color.

Adding your Personal Touch to a Blog

When designing a blog, it is important to find a host web site that is easy for you to use. What is easy for one person may not be so easy for another. For that reason, I chose to go with Blogger as my host blog site. When it comes to designing a blog, the biggest tip I can give you is treat it as if it is a journal to your diary. You might want to order your blog post in chronological order. This will help you and the reader to follow along with your journey and so they can know what is the more current or relevant information. Secondly, as you design your blog, treat your target audience as if they were someone that you want to “visit” your blog. No one is there to stay, but if your blog becomes a site that people visit on a daily or weekly basis, you will create a pretty good following. For that reason, you want to design a blog site that creates community, give the reader a chance to talk back so leave a comment section under your blog (Stauffer, 2008).  You might also want to add a subscription feed so people can subscribe and get notified when you post something new.

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