Social media.
We know the impact it has on our students and their personal lives. But what about their professional circles? I've talked about being a millennial throughout my previous blog posts, so for this assignment, I was drawn to an article that focuses on social media and millennials.
Called 5 Social Media Skills Millennials Lack, this article looks into the problems that people my own age have when it comes to really utilizing social media to expand their careers.
The title says it all - we know how to connect with friends, family, even acquaintances. We are all simply one click away. But when it comes to fueling our careers, many of us fall short.
Here's a quick overview of the five skills most millennials lack:
For me, I think the first and fifth are the most relevant. We've all heard stories about potential employers checking Facebook profiles. And like we learned in our data mining assignment, what goes online stays there forever. It seems pretty obvious, but unfortunately, it still has to be said - be careful what you post online. The other skill, being able to create an online "cold call" to companies, is something we don't always think about. I was always raised never to connect with someone online unless I knew them in real life. While this is true and safe, it doesn't always apply in places such as LinkedIn. As the article says, your next boss could be one email away.
Overall, reading this article inspired me to take a deeper look at my online presence. Personally, I never really used social media to expand my professional network until last year. I'm slowly changing that, and this article provided some great points that should be considered.
We know the impact it has on our students and their personal lives. But what about their professional circles? I've talked about being a millennial throughout my previous blog posts, so for this assignment, I was drawn to an article that focuses on social media and millennials.
Called 5 Social Media Skills Millennials Lack, this article looks into the problems that people my own age have when it comes to really utilizing social media to expand their careers.
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| Personal screenshot from http://fortune.com/2014/03/28/5-social-media-skills-millennials-lack/ |
The title says it all - we know how to connect with friends, family, even acquaintances. We are all simply one click away. But when it comes to fueling our careers, many of us fall short.
Here's a quick overview of the five skills most millennials lack:
- Knowing when to censor potentially offensive comments on personal accounts
- Using social media as a time saver, specifically to contact coworkers within the office
- Understanding how to get maximum exposure online
- How to unify multiple social media platforms with things like hashtags
- Realizing you can directly connect with potential employers to jump start careers
For me, I think the first and fifth are the most relevant. We've all heard stories about potential employers checking Facebook profiles. And like we learned in our data mining assignment, what goes online stays there forever. It seems pretty obvious, but unfortunately, it still has to be said - be careful what you post online. The other skill, being able to create an online "cold call" to companies, is something we don't always think about. I was always raised never to connect with someone online unless I knew them in real life. While this is true and safe, it doesn't always apply in places such as LinkedIn. As the article says, your next boss could be one email away.
Overall, reading this article inspired me to take a deeper look at my online presence. Personally, I never really used social media to expand my professional network until last year. I'm slowly changing that, and this article provided some great points that should be considered.
Happy to hear you took something out of it!
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