qualifications for the position.
After reviewing her application, and before the interview was to take place, the potential employer looked for her on Facebook. Well, somewhere around the fourth photo, there she was with a bunch of her friends. They were in a smoke-filled room passing a very large pipe of some sort. Now, we’re taught not to prejudge people, and it was, hopefully, a legal substance, but now red flags had been raised. Employers need to know what they’re getting into with new hires. After all, the actions of employees become a reflection on the business—like it or not. (Doubt it? Refer once again to the 2017 United Airlines incident.)
Is this message starting to hit home?
Before you even begin to think about reaching out to your online audience or connections, take a long hard look at every public and social footprint you have out there from their perspectives. You may be greatly surprised at what you find when you look at yourself through a potential client’s eyes.
If you’re not certain you can handle this task objectively, ask some trusted friends or associates to search your profiles for anything that might be misconstrued by someone who doesn’t already know what a fine individual you are. Ask for honest impressions and guard yourself against being offended by anything they say. The goal is to have your online reputation be one of professionalism, integrity, and expertise. Offer to do the same for those who invest their time in helping you.
The Most Searched Social Media Platforms
With over 20 popular social media platforms available worldwide, it’s important for you to know three things.
1. Which platforms your ideal candidates for business use
2. Which platform employers and potential clients use to search for information on your credibility and expertise
3. How to properly and effectively use the platforms your clients use
You may be a big fan of Instagram and be very comfortable using it to communicate with others. However, depending upon the type of business you represent, your best clients might be found on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or another platform. Not having a presence on those other platforms could hurt your chances of doing business with great clients. You simply won’t be found. And, by not having an account with those platforms, you won’t be able to reach out to your client demographic on it.
When you think about finding leads for business on social media, it’s just like fishing. You must fish where the fish hang out. Take a look at the demographic of those using each platform before choosing where you create your presence.
As of the writing of this book, Facebook is the leader in popularity when it comes to social media platforms. Other social networks worldwide ranked in the order of number of active users are:
We confess to not having knowledge of all of these platforms. Some we’d never heard of until doing research for this chapter. This reminds us of how important it is to keep abreast of changes in the social platform arena. Heaven knows that were we to discover that many of our potential clients are using a platform we’re not familiar with, we’d make a quick study of it and establish our expert presence there. Or, hire someone who does have knowledge of its workings to set us up properly. It’s wise for you to consider that same practice.
With so many platforms available, it’s important to analyze the top three or four where your clients are most likely to be found. Managing a presence on all those listed here would require a team of social media managers. Our personal experience has been with a select few of the platforms and we’ll be using those for our examples. Most of the strategies we’ll be covering should translate to other platforms as well.
1. Facebook
According to WhatIs.com, Facebook is a free social networking website that allows registered users to create profiles, upload photos and videos, send messages and keep in touch with friends, family, and colleagues.
The site, which is available in 101 languages at this writing, includes public features such as:
Marketplace - allows members to post, read and respond to classified ads.
Groups - allows members who have common interests to find each other and interact.
Events- allows members to publicize an event, invite guests and track who plans to attend.
Pages - allows members to create and promote a public page built around a specific topic.
Presence technology - allows members to see which contacts are online and to chat.
