by teamrecWith the quantum of interaction among people increasing tremendously on the network the question of online presence management was bound to come up. Social Media has been a revolution and people have been drawn towards it like moths. It has changed the way people interact, create, share and exchange information with quality, reach, speed, frequency and permanence.
Most people associate social media with positive outcomes, yet this is not always the case. One needs to be very sure of the goal one wants to achieve by creating an online presence. Once the goal is identified then an ongoing and constant process of evaluating and fine-tuning is necessary to drive the presence towards the identified goal.
With 100’s of websites connecting people around the world who are eager to share their thoughts and feelings there is always a chance to go overboard with sharing too much information. What you choose to share is there for all to see if you don’t limit who can view your information; the viral effect can take the information shared to hundreds of people across the globe.
For simplicity sake we can broadly categorise online content into social and professional. However, with most of the users taking advantage of more than one site, there is bound to be some cross over from one to the other, especially if you have the sites linked. The blurring line which differentiates between the social and the professional is reason enough to worry on the negative outcomes of social media. So it is imperative that a person who gets active on the net is very sure of the goal to be achieved and the platform he/she uses to achieve the same. If the person is looking for a professional goal then he/she needs to be very sure to connect with the right kind of profiles and in case the choice is to have a social connect then he/she needs to connect with contacts on a social platform.
However, the problem crops up when the “fence sitters” come into picture. “Fence sitters” typically are people who belong to either group but who due to factors like closeness and longevity of association or for other reasons, like just not sure of how to turn down an invite politely, get access to the other group. An Office colleague with whom you have shared rides to office and back or a class friend could both be “Fence sitter”. It is very likely that the colleague and the class friend would have access to both the professional and social platform or vice versa. Hence, the “fence sitter” could be reason enough to not share personal and private matters on the wall. You may be dying to share with your social platform the info of your new work promotion or a new project that you might have bagged, but then it’s not something you should share. Be really careful of what you share. You don’t know who might read it. An ex-colleague working with the company’s competitor may use the info to his/her benefit.
Quality is more important than quantity when it comes to connecting. The question to ask oneself when connecting is how can the person help me or what can I do to help them. Before you ask someone to connect, ask yourself what you have in common. This is a very fundamental question which needs to be addressed. In a nutshell, give to get. Networking works both ways – the more you are willing to help someone, more likely they will be to help you. Whether you are sharing your emotions or feelings; joys or sorrow or your professional achievements or failures, you get what you give.
When you are on the net it is very important to be sure of the image you want others to carry about you. Very often people get carried away and put out comments which would never happen in a face to face interaction. But do not forget that once you put a comment out on the net the viral effect gets it to hundreds of readers across the globe and there is no way to undo it. So it is very important to be conscious and sure of what one wants to communicate. You may agree or disagree but to get abusive or offensive is a sure shot way to get blocked or reported. We need to understand that a social media platform is not for venting out your personal frustrations in the form of abuse to another user. Very often you find users getting abusive towards politicians or film stars or other celebrities and at times even individuals whose views are not in line with the writers view. But then one can disagree politely or completely ignore the subject. It has been a personal experience when one of my friends was getting borderline abusive towards other platform users particularly from the political class. I called up and shared my concern with him about his image taking a beating with all the wrong vocabulary that was being used. He agreed and rarely have I seen him make the same mistake. Be a gentleman with the right attitude and etiquettes and you sure would have a very healthy exchange of ideas on the net.
Take some time everyday to reach out to your connections. Share an article or a news item but your sleeping habit, your meal timing or your travel itinerary would / is not of national interest. Please do not share your half hourly / hourly update just to increase your number of tweets or status or wall postings. Here too quality is more important than quantity. In addition, people take you as a non serious user and an attention seeker.
Social media can help find a job and connect with the right people for career growth. However, it works both ways. When used the wrong way it can backfire and jeopardize a job offer or at times, even the current job. It’s important to be a smart social media user and know the difference between what to do and what not to do while using net.
When you are looking for a change of job or a career growth, it’s important to showcase your skills and experience on a professional social media platform. One should be particular in what one wants to project to the viewer of the profile and the communication should be in line with the same. A decent snap to accompany the profile gives the viewer an idea of what to expect. Its fine if you rework your job description a bit but be sure that your entire social and professional platforms information jive because if they don’t jive that’s a red flag for prospective employers.
Employers do check out both existing and prospective employees on the social platform. They are updated as to the social behavior of the employee so that there are no surprises. Be really careful what you write as information shared on net is permanent. It is quite easy to find information that you might have preferred to keep private. If you post it, I guarantee someone will read it!!!!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Abhay has 19+ years of experience in Recruitment, Mentoring and Business Development. He is an entrepreneur and a professional with 14+ years in the industry specialising in Manpower Planning, Strategy and Recruitments. He heads Operations and Business Development at Team Recruiters a Delhi based Manpower Consulting company with clientele in both domestic and overseas market. Abhay is widely known across the industry and has a great reputation across Capital Market and Travel Trade, which has been the focus of Team Recruiter’s business interest for the last two years. He has been a hands-on person spearheading the operations for the company and has a good connect with people across the board.
He has earlier been an entrepreneur with 12+ years at the helm of Teamvision Solutions a Delhi based Manpower Consulting company with clientele in both domestic and overseas market.
In his previous roles, prior to Teamvision, he has also worked with Thapar Groups IT venture iBiLT Technologies Ltd, Excel Infotech Ltd and US based AVS Systems Inc. and was instrumental in growing the business tremendously.
