This week, we talked about building our personal brand and ensuring that we were communicating our personal brand consistently across all social media platforms. This got me thinking about my own accounts and what messages they were carrying to potential employers.
5 Social Media Platforms I am most active on:
- SoundCloud
After a quick glance through my accounts, I could say I was satisfied with 4/5 of these networks and what they communicated. My Facebook is completely hidden from non-friends, my Instagram has carefully curated photos I am proud of, my LinkedIn is well built-out, and my SoundCloud showcases my taste in music. My one concern was of my Twitter account.
Prior to the course, my Twitter was used to share interesting content and tweet fun thoughts that were going through my head. There was nothing professional about my Twitter – you could find anything from celebrity news to personal travel updates on my feed. I asked myself, should I protect my Tweets? There were 2 arguments to be made.
1. Protect the Tweets. Risk: Employers thinking I have something to hide. Benefit: No risk of my tweets being deemed too unprofessional.
2. Don’t protect the Tweets. Risk: Offending a potential employer, or having them think my tweets are unprofessional. Benefit: Being able to showcase my personality.
In the end, I have decided to protect my Tweets. I believe that my personality can be shown through my other social networks, and I don’t want to have to worry about sending out Tweets to try to make myself appear more professional, or having a potential employer judge me before meeting me!