5 Ways to Avoid Sabotaging Your Personal Brand Online

I’m really glad I read the article 5 Ways to Avoid Sabotaging Your Personal Brand

Online, it has addressed some of the questions I have had about conducting myself on social media. For instance we were told to create all these different social media accounts for a class I had my sophomore year in college. It was great to learn the ins and outs of the different platforms, but as time went on I began having trouble keeping all of my profiles up to date. I was worried that an employer would expect me to have certain social media platforms then be disappointed when they were not current.  As Dan Schawbel, the author of the article, states it is not necessary to stretch yourself to thin in order to have a presence on every social media platform. He really nails the point that social media, like many other things, is quality over quantity. You would rather have great profiles on the most popular social media platforms rather than just good profiles on all of them.

In addition I have been struggling with work and play on social media. I mean should I friend my new boss and colleges? But if I did that I wouldn’t connect with my friends as I usually do. And Schawbel has a great solution of keeping your personal page [private but creating a fan page for work people. I highly doubt I’ll actually go through the trouble of doing that but he does make a great point that employers should respect your privacy in some use of social media.

And if I did decide to connect professionally on social media, how would I make my skills known without seeming like I’m just advertising for myself? Once again Schawbel addresses this issue that social media isn’t always about yourself. You can gain attention and credibility on these platforms by promoting others in your field of interest. By interacting with the types of people you want to associate with you will show your expertise in that area and your credibility will be more true.