My Deal with Social Media: Pt 2

Social media isn’t all bad. Over the years with the growth of the internet social media has been a major asset in terms of business, networking, promoting, content marketing, and/or branding. There are even job roles that center on it.

Whatever is your career goal, building a personal brand is important. Now with social media being as huge it is social branding seems to be the only or most essential way for building your brand online. The first step is choosing what you want to be recognized for and what networks work best for that. Then you need to be consistently producing relevant and shareable content. Also connect with and cleverly use your mentors or influencers. Of course there are more actions to do in the midst of this and after to have a recognized online presence, so it’s important you do your own research.

As a writer, people always tell me I must have social media. I’m not uninformed about this. I know that socially marketing yourself in your chosen industry and building a personal and/or career focused brand is vital (at least for certain fields).  I know there are possible opportunities that can come because of the strong presence one has online. However being the anti-social media person I am- I struggle with this. Although I know these things, I still doubt it being the truth. Or maybe it’s my own ignorance of not accepting it to be. To know that if we do not present ourselves online and are not continually optimizing our presentation can stunt our progression bothers me. But not doing so, among other things is maybe why I am where I am today.

A month or so ago I was waiting for the bus after work when this young man from NYC asked me for directions. We made small talk and he told me he’s a visual artist in London to network with other creatives. I told him I’m a writer which prompted him to ask for my Instagram name. After telling him I don’t have Instagram and why not we had an interesting conversation about the web and social media. He explained how Instagram in particular has helped him. I admitted to being self-conscious sometimes about sharing my work. What this stranger said next has stuck with me since.

He said, “You’re only as good as a washed up writer.”

I didn’t even take offense because he had a point. If I’m not present online and using social media to promote myself and my work no one will know about it. Promotion however is also only one small aspect. I’ve made it a goal this year to be active in other ways. It’s not called a social media strategy for nothing!

Recently I applied for a job that I really wanted. I possessed all the qualifications and felt confident about sending in my CV.  Shortly after it I sent it I was asked to complete a writing task. I had to think of a feature and adapt the story to different online platforms including social media. It was going good until I had to think of an idea for Snapchat. I know publications use Snapchat as another creative outlet for delivering content but I was a little clueless coming up with an idea for it that I had to ask my friends for help.

Completing that writing task showed me I need to be a little more active on the socials. Obviously not in the sense like my previous blog post, but active where I know enough and am learning aspects I can apply to my career. There is power in social media. The only justifiable reason for overuse is if the goal is to make money or if you are already cashing in.

Let’s get to using our resources this way!

-C