5 Social Media Strategies for Achieving Success After College

“Don’t make yourself look bad on social media”

We’ve all heard this before.

It’s common knowledge that companies and organizations around the country are using social media to gauge potential candidates. Most college students are well aware of the potential damage that a negative social media image can have.

Where do we go from here?

In the realm of social media image, there’s extremely good, average and extremely bad. By definition, most people are in the average. Not by choice, but default.

The good news is that there are some simple choices that you can make to put yourself in the extremely good column. An extremely good image can lead to opportunities, friendships, and connections to serve you long after you graduate. An extremely good profile could even land you your dream job after college.

Before we discuss the formula that you can use to hyper drive your social media image, let’s first look at steps that you can use to make an instant impact.

Step 1: Purge. Nothing that your mother wouldn’t want to see.

Step 2: Create a bio that shows your major, interests, and awesomeness.

Step 3: Complete your profile. Especially for LinkedIn

Step 4: Link to a personal website or include your email address.

Step 5: Get a professional head shot.

Step 6: Post yourself having great experiences.

Your profile is the core of your social media presence. Without a good profile, our formula is useless. Once you’ve taken these steps, the formula will work like magic for you.

Here’s the formula: LEVNI

1. Listen. As they say, social media is nothing more than a large gathering of people having conversations. Before you enter any conversation, the first step is to listen to what’s being said. For you, this means finding the conversation about your future work. If you want to be a lawyer, find local lawyers and law firms and listen to what they’re saying. Learn as much as you can, then…

2. Engage. Engaging is the key to gaining the attention of your audience. In social media, this is as simple as liking posts, leaving comments, and reposting. Personally, I rarely receive a comment or repost without visiting the person’s page. If your profile is effective, the sky is the limit on the connections and opportunities you can create.

3. Value. In the real world, those who get noticed are those who add the most value. The same is true in social media. Sharing articles, blog posts, quotes, and more are ways that you can add value to the conversation. The more valuable your content, the more people will be drawn to connect with you.

4. Niche. As you engage, listen, and add value, it’s important to stay niched. If you want to be a lawyer, keep all that you do in this area. Take some time to identify who you want to be connected to and learn from. Find more and more people in this area and continue to listen, engage and add value.

5. Influencers. Influencers are people on social media that have weight. These are the people that have a direct connection to the opportunities that you want. Whether it be, LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook, be sure to find the influencers. Once you find these influencers, engage with them consistently. Consistent engagement will get their attention.

These are things that you can do immediately to use your social media to your advantage and not your demise. Stay consistent and you will be delighted at the great connections opportunities you create.