How Social Media Can Advance Your Career

In this digital age, most of us use social media sites, such as Facebook, on daily basis; whether it’s for personal or professional. People are staying connected closer than ever. We can now utilize social media to express ideas, expand new products or even just sharing stories.

Facebook is one of the most popular social media sites with over 500 million active users. They are providing a powerful place to share information in text format, photos and even videos. One of the effective ways to drive traffic to your page is to find other blogs or forums that relate to the industry within which you wish to launch your career, and start commenting. Find your niche and communicate. For instance, I’m an independent sales rep for Avon, and through my page, you can find links of Avon, or through by liking Avon’s page I can find you because we share the same interests and geographic. You look for me on Facebook by putting my email address: wenjifan@hotmail.com  and let’s be friends and check it out.

The average user has 120 friends on their site. An interesting statistic is that more than half of Facebook users are outside college and the fastest growing demographic is those 35 years old and older. These could represent your future bosses or currently is a boss somewhere. According to a survey, 45 percent of employers said they visit the social network sites of potential hires. Although that’s an interesting fact, Facebook can help or hurt your reputation depending how well you utilize your site. According to the CareerBuilder survey, 50 percent of employers hired a candidate when his or her profile “provided a good feel for the candidate’s personality and fit” and 30 percent when the profile “supported the candidate’s professional qualifications.” The bottom line is, whatever you put on the internet is there forever, if you don’t want unwanted people to see, then don’t post it. Pictures of you and your pals getting wasted just aren’t very attractive in anyone’s eyes, not to mention your future potential employers. Put stuff that would say a lot about your personality or uniqueness about you, but not stuff that would make a fool out of yourself. I hope this little advice can help to those who are new to social media and good luck!