Why are you on Social Media?

If you have the talent and you want to exhibit it to people, you don’t need dedicated media. You have YouTube. Just record your talent, post it on you tube and circulate the link through e-mail, Facebook and Google plus. You can also create your own channel. Now we can’t say that we don’t have any exposure. We have lot of exposure…  

Social sites are very effective tools if used properly. Different social sites have different characteristic and utility value. Facebook is for leisure and fun, LinkedIn is for professional networking, you can share your slides on slideshare, on BlogSpot you can express your opinion and views, you can upload documents, videos, slides. But your objective should be clear. However most of the time we get confused and don’t have the clear objective.

Facebook is the media where people get the opportunity to glorify themselves. At one stage everybody wants to be recognized and this hunger of publicity and recognition is fulfilled on Facebook. If you see the posts and updates, you don’t actually get something which has the value. People exposed their personal life on the Facebook and make everything public. You come to know about the person, where s/he is, what s/he is doing, where s/he is vacationing, what s/he is drinking, what s/he is eating, when s/he is doing the romance with his/her girlfriend/boyfriend or spouse and so on… and once it is on internet, you already made it public.

So you are on the public domain with all the details. Anti-social elements can use these details to damage your reputation. There is the case where person updated the status about travelling, and when he came back, his house was cleaned by thieves.  You also must have read the funny story recently in newspaper where the thief send the friendship request and got caught. (this also is one of the benefits of Facebook!)

I use most of the social media and I can definitely say that I am benefitted a lot. If you use following tips, you can leverage on the social media…

Objective: When you start using the social media, firstly your objective should be clear. LinkedIn is for professional networking and your professional branding. Use this for the same purpose. Facebook also can be for personal branding, but there is a trap. Ask the question yourself, “why do you want to spend time on Facebook?” is it just for the leisure, fun, networking, making friends or creating your own personal brand? You can find your old friends and colleagues on Facebook, but would you love to be in touch with them only in virtual world or want to take it further? Will you network with your boss, colleagues etc? 

Your Facebook profile has the identity, it is your brand. People may judge you based on your posting, likes and comments. Sometimes, HR professionals may dig into your profile to assess you.

Whatsoever is your objective is, keep confidential and (so) personal information out of the facebook.

You can use Facebook for two purposes,

1) Just for making friends (as far as possible known friends and old classmates).  Suggestion is, don’t make it too personal. You can actually keep this for your close friends and relatives. Choose your friends very carefully. Remember, the posts what they are sharing will be on you wall and it may have adverse effect on your reputation.    

2) Creating your personal brand in the virtual world. You can actually use your talent and intellect here to make your image. Yes, image building exercise!

You can also create your personal page on the Facebook if you want to make it for professional use. Here you share the stuff which is not personal and you allow to join anybody.

Keep in  the mind that Big Brother is always watching you.