Using Social Media for Your Business

There is a great article in the Newark Star Ledger today about using social media to enhance your business prospects. The article chronicles a real estate agent who juggles Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.  The same rules can be used for using social media for your job search.  Did you know that many recruiters and companies use social media to find the right candidates?  Many are stepping away from on line job boards in favor of social media.

The rules of social media haven't changed much:
1. Know your audience.
2. Clean up all of your social sites.  This means hiding those people who make the inappropriate comments or have the "unusual" photos.
3. Stay away from certain topics such as religion and politics.
4. Never bad mouth anyone including your former boss, company or peers.
5. Update.  Always update.  Also make sure that your profiles are 100% complete.

Here's another thing to think about.  In social media your voice is going everywhere.  Any remarks that you post in groups (Facebook) can be seen by anyone who Googles you. If you sign up for a MySpace account and put in the required information such as name, date of birth, etc, the whole world will see that too.  Again, tread gently with your comments and information.