I recently welcomed the lovely Allison Schummer to my team. As an aspiring marketer and very recent SDSU grad about to enter the work force, Allison’s ambition has positively fueled her to not only help my company grow, but also continue learning and educating herself about digital marketing and social media. Allison has shared with everyone things she’s learned about networking, social media and marketing since we’ve been working together and insights from volunteering at my Digital Media Now seminar. Since she just graduated she shares how she personally is using social media in her job search. These tips are great for both beginners getting into the space and anyone who could use a little refresher! Before she begins a huge CONGRATULATIONS is in order to her for completing her degree just a few days ago at SDSU!

HIT IT ALLISON!

Since I just finished my life as a college student at SDSU, it’s got me thinking about my next step in life: a career. As I enter in the professional market and have started looking for job opportunities, I have realized the importance of optimizing your Social Media profiles. Listed below are ways Social Media has helped me and can help you in your professional job search:

Consistently Branding yourself on Social Media Profiles:
It’s very important to brand yourself on your Social Media sites and make sure you are consistent within each one. This makes it easier for potential employers to search for you on the web. One way to brand yourself as a professional is to claim your own Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn URL’s.

Connecting with Professionals:
I have found it very useful to follow and connect with professionals in the marketing and social media industry on Twitter and LinkedIn. Through connecting with these professionals I am not only expanding my professional network, but I am also learning more about the careers and industries that I am interested in. You never know who you will connect with who may have a job opportunity suited for you. I’ve also noticed different job postings by professionals I’ve connected with.

Tailor Social Networks:
It’s so important to tailor your Social Networking sites towards the position or career you are interested in. For example, for someone interested in Marketing, it’s important to tweet about up-to-date marketing strategies or blog about topics relating to Marketing. This shows potential employers that you are truly passionate about the position or career you are pursuing. It’s also important to edit your Social Networking sites to make sure nothing too personal is being displayed. It probably wouldn’t be the best idea to post pictures of you doing a keg stand at some party on your Facebook page. Since Social Networking sites are often employer’s first impressions of you, you want to post or tweet about topics that are appropriate.

These are just a few tips that have helped in my job search so far! Thanks to a prior blog post from Melodie on 10 Ways to Land Your Next Job Through Social Media, I also learned other ways to  utilize Social Media to find my next job. If anybody has some more great tips that would help me in a job seeking, feel free to follow me on Twitter, I would greatly appreciate it and look forward to hearing from you!