How to behave on social networks to build a successful career?

Perhaps, after reading the headline, you had the idea that no one has the right to tell you how to behave on social networks. Indeed, a profile on social networks is a way of expressing oneself and communicating with the world, but if you plan to develop your career, you should know that recruiters study the identity of a potential employee in absentia precisely on Facebook profiles, Instagram and Vkontakte. IGTV is a tool that helps to build your social profile.

In this sense, social networks like LinkedIn are not suitable, as their specialization introduces certain restrictions in filling out the profile.

How to behave on social networks?

Consider the options for filling out the profile and behavior in the virtual world with a few examples.

For example, there is a young girl Tatyana who works as a primary school teacher and dreams of getting a job in a large international educational center. She sends out professionally written resumes to foreign companies and is waiting for an invitation for an interview from recruiters.

But there is a small nuance: before you schedule an interview, the recruiter will definitely check the profile of the applicant on Facebook. And Tatyana has a photo on her profile picture, where she sits in a cozy cafe with a glass of wine. It would seem that it’s okay, the teachers are also people, and the photo itself does not characterize Tatyana negatively. But such conclusions can be made only after a long analysis. And at first glance, an association arises that Tatyana is not reliable enough and will not be able to give children a good example to follow.

What is the way out of this situation? The image must be holistic. In the case of Tatyana, it would be better to post a neutral photo or a picture with the children in order to unobtrusively emphasize professionalism.

How else should you not behave on social networks? Your Facebook activity can also play a trick on you.

To describe this more clearly, let us again turn to a virtual example.

Natalya, a customer service manager, devotes a lot of time to her professional duties and rarely is in the office as a duty, talking with potential clients in a neutral territory. Natalia’s dream is to climb the career ladder and get the position of head of sales in a large company.

After receiving the resume of the applicant for such a serious position, the recruiter must also check the profile of social networks. And he will see that, despite the constant employment, Natalya actively leads her page, takes part in contests and posts test results. Accordingly, the conclusion suggests itself that Natalia does not pay due attention to work and is unlikely to be able to increase the level of sales for the position of manager.

What needs to be done to remedy the situation? If your work is related to sales or communication with people, try to make your profile look like you don’t have time to fill it out. You can post and repost entries very rarely, as well as add new photos. If you can’t imagine your life without likes, try to choose only the most successful pictures from important events, and make reposts as rarely as possible.

How do real professionals behave on social networks?

Suppose we are considering the profile of Alexander, a candidate for the post of director in a large industrial company that works with eastern, African and western countries. But Alexander’s page is literally full of jokes and other humorous statements with political overtones. In fact, there is nothing wrong with that, but the director of a large enterprise should be tolerant of representatives of different cultures, political and religious beliefs.

In this case, we can confidently say that Alexander is unlikely to get the job he is doing, since in the virtual world he does not look serious enough and professional.

We can conclude that giving advice on how to behave properly in social networks should be focused on the professional activity of a person and his career ambitions. Information must be filtered and try to look at your page through the eyes of the end user.

And a little secret in the end: in the profile settings there is always the opportunity to hide photos or records in the profile. By checking the appropriate fields, you will limit the circle of people who will see information that is undesirable from a professional point of view.