Building your personal online presence

As per socialmediatoday:

“A number of reports now indicate that more and more employers are investing time and effort into seeing what their employees are doing with social media, both during and after the workday has ended…”

With this being said, it is extremely important to not only have SOME type of online presence but to also understand how to harness it to your advantage as EVERYONE is looking at you.

Here are a few best practices to follow with your online presence:

1. Choose a personal style and think about what you want to be known for – Your online presence is real and matters! what you project to the world is what the world will think of you. When tweeting, avoid negative commentary and think twice about what you tweet. Also, avoiding tweeting when intoxicated… you may regret it the next morning.

2. Add value and realize it’s not about you - Knowledge is free, so share it. Whether it be industry related news or pointing your connections to other smart people; people want to connect.

3. Build a community - engaging with others, replies to tweets and reading/ commenting on blogs are all simple ways to build your online presence… so start doing it! 

4. Don’t worry about the numbers – growth builds over time. Focus on creating meaningful connections with people, creating valued content, and participating in discussions. The people you add to your networks through these mediums are users you will value in the future as they care about your content. There’s  point of having 100K twitter followers if they have no interest nor relate to what your doing.

5. Know your limits – You can’t be on every platform, at every event, all the time. Focus your efforts to the platforms you feel are most important to you and limit how much time you spend on these mediums. There is nothing worse than realizing you have spent your entire day on LinkedIn, twitter, or on your blog.

The bottom line is this: Your online presence is another factor that you must be aware of. Just as you would present yourself in a  suit and tie for an interview, you should ensure your online presence isn’t caught with its pants down.

References:

Doyle, A. (2013). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://jobsearch.about.com/od/professionalbranding/qt/brandbuilding.htm

Mullen, D. (2009, January 7). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.davidwmullen.com/2009/01/07/10-tips-to-build-a-solid-online-presence/

Sambuchino, C. (2012, January 7). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/7-best-practices-for-building-an-online-presence