Kim Connor Streich
Since the dawn of the internet, humankind has been looking for a way to wave our personal interests under people’s noses without them saying ‘Ewww, gross!’ and wheeling away in abject horror. At long last, social media has provided us with that opportunity. But we all know a blogger, an artist, a musician… a something that has taken their opportunity for free promotion to a captive audience of friends a bit too far. But how much is too much? Follow the tips below for some effective ways to promote yourself on social media during the process of looking for a graduate job, without being too cringey.
1. Less is more
Stop thinking that the amount of stuff you post is the only thing that matters. Yeah, you gotta post regularly to keep your audience. But two or three times a week, even two or three times a month will cover that for you.
Rather than flood people’s timelines with your projects all the time, post at the best times when people will be looking. Lunchtimes and early evening are the classics. And for the real professionals amongst you, tools like Buffer and Tweetdeck help you to schedule all your social posts in advance. Tidy.
2. Get personal
Our generation has to consume so much more marketing than any that’s ever preceded it. And guess what – the more marketing we’re exposed to, the more we hate it. If you want your personal brand to be worth a damn, then you’ve gotta do better than soulless hey!-click-this-link-that-doesn’t benefit-you-at-all posts.
Social media is for telling your friends’ stories and people will respond better if you put some of your own personality into it. If you’re funny, make your post funny. If there’s a crazy story behind it, tell it. Friends come to your profile for you, so putting a little more of you into the work you share is crucial.
3. Be creative
Again, you have to do the most you can to get noticed in the sea of things people see on their News Feeds. So you’ve gotta offer something a little different. If you can add an image, sound clip or video to anything you do, I definitely recommend doing it.
Text posts tend to get skimmed over for the most part in the ethereal world of social media. At least with a bit of movement or sound, what you post is more likely to be remembered on its way into the abyss.
4. Take pride
I have a nasty habit of self-deprecating whenever I share posts to my social media. Saying “Check out this thing that I did if you want or don’t it’s probably trash anyway ahaha” doesn’t work. As much as you don’t want to be a d*ck, it just isn’t gonna get your hard work the attention it deserves.
If you don’t have pride in what you do then no-one else will either. “Check this thing out, I worked really hard on it” commands way more respect. If you think that blog post you’ve written is the best thing you’ve written in a while, say that. After all, if you don’t blow your own horn every once in a while, there won’t be any music.
5. Chill with the hashtags
#You #don’t #need #a #billion #of #these #to #get #views #on #a #post. In fact, it pretty much does the opposite, turning people off what you have to say.
Time was, you had to put a paragraph of hashtags on an Instagram post to make sure everyone would know how complex and multi-faceted that pic of your lunch was. But those days are gone. Pick a few quality, relevant hashtags to go with your post and nothing more.
6. Interact with people
People need to feel like they’re actually getting something out of interacting with your posts. If they’re engaged enough by your content to comment on it, make sure to reply.
Not only are you showing your audience that their opinion matters, engaging in debate and receiving constructive criticism will make better at whatever you do. If any of your friends do similar things, be sure to check out, comment on and share their work too. You never know when they might return the favour.
7. Live your life
Surprisingly, this is something a lot people forget to do. It’s too tempting to use you social media channels to pimp out everything that you’ve ever worked on, but you’ve gotta use it to live your life too.
Don’t forget to break up the stream of self-promotion as many fun posts as you’re comfortable with. Go out, see things, express opinions, hang with friends and take pictures. Because your side-hustle is cool but hey, you do other stuff too.
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