What does social media mean for your future?

Does social media affect your future? Do colleges really look at you profiles? Do job recruiters? In this post I will discuss what colleges and job recruiters look for on social media.

Social media is often seen as what we are doing in the present, right now. But it can also hold a lot of weight in your future as well. It is important that we make sure that what we post on social media, and what we allow others to post of us, is appropriate and portrays ourselves in a way that we would want other's in the world to view us. Ultimately, for teens that means future college admissions officers and later on potential employers and how years of their social media information culminates into a quick view that can often adversely affect their future.

Many teenagers stress about their college applications and grades and the extra curricular activities that they participated in and whether it will all be enough to get them into their first choice. What many teenagers forget about in all the application madness is that colleges can see their social media profiles. The best way to make sure your profiles are in tip top shape for admissions is to know what you should and shouldn’t post on them from the very beginning. That way, there is no worry later on–about that at least.

While many college admissions officers don’t have the time to look at even a fraction of their applicants’ profiles, there is a possibility and admissions officers have said that they do it occasionally. I know that when I was applying to colleges, none of my classmates wanted to take the chance. I don’t tend to post on my social media often, I use it more to see what my friends are doing and to kill time, so I wasn’t worried personally. However, I did have friends that worried more because they posted often and about everything they were thinking. For them, college application time meant social media clean up time as well. And according to Consumer Reports, there has been a rise in the hiring of social media coaches. Personally, I don’t think that this is really necessary for teens who are already well versed in social media.

Social media is a tool. It is a tool that can show people who you are and what you are interested in and what you are passionate about. It is important that your profile reflects these things. You want your social media account to portray your strengths and what makes you unique. It can also be helpful to let your parents help in this process of curating a positive online presence because anything you wouldn’t want your parents to see, you probably don’t want college admissions to see either (Bhardwaj, 2017).

Personally, I think that it is more important to have a positive online presence than it is to have none at all or private accounts. While many admissions officers do not have time to look at applicants’ profiles, some may, and you will want them to be able to see those profiles and use them as if they were an extension of your application–or resume in the case of job hunting. What you want to show is your hobbies, interests, volunteering, etc. You want to show them your authentic self, but the self that shows them you would be a good addition to their campus. This means taking off–and continuing not to post–anything that involves anything illegal such as underage drinking and recreational drug usage. That is not the look we are going for. Also, if you are going to have a "finsta" *, make sure that it does not have your name or profile picture of yourself. Your profiles do not have to be perfect but keep them classy and showcasing your talents.

While getting your profiles college admissions ready may seem difficult to some, it will only be made harder when it comes time to search for a job if it is not well maintained. Once admitted and in college it can be easy to fall back into habits of posting everything we do online–good or bad– but it is important that we remember the future ahead of us and that means job searches and job recruiters who will most likely be looking at your social media profiles. That is why maintenance is key.

I am in a sorority and we have a social media policy that each member signs and agrees to. At first, I wondered why they thought that we–college kids considered to be adults that should be responsible–needed them to tell us what was and was not appropriate to post. It wasn’t until a little while into my first semester that I realized it was because some people may not know, or just not think about, what is appropriate to put online. While the agreement itself says that it is so we always represent our chapter in the best way possible–which it is–it is also an easy way for them to help us prepare for finding jobs in our future careers. They want us to portray ourselves online the same way we would in an interview.

Like I said before, it is important to treat your social media as an extension of your resume. You want to appear professional, have content that supports the qualities and qualifications that you stated in your resume, and know what other people are posting with and about you (Morgan, 2017). You need to create a personal “brand” for yourself. This self-branding is important because “[e]mployers want to hire someone who has strong decision-making abilities, and good judgment and ethics… This is why employers have begun using social media as a recruiting tool. The things people post online shed light on their judgment and professionalism” (Morgan, 2017). You want them to see who you are and how you present yourself and want them to want you as much as you want them–maybe more if possible.

How we portray ourselves online is a form of self-branding. Social media is also where most companies are trying to persuade us to buy their product or service, whether through influencer sponsorships or sponsored ads. For the field I would like to be in (advertising), self-branding on social media is important because–to be able to sell products online for potential clients–they should be able to see that you can first brand yourself as someone who is good at branding. Self-branding is more than just not showing what recruiters/employers don’t want to see. One article said that they “encourage professionals to have a style guide for themselves”. They even give helpful examples as to what this may mean. The author asks “What’s your color? What’s your font?” He says he “want[s] to get a sense of how you see yourself as a brand” (Fernandez, 2018). If you brand yourself as who you want to be and who you are, future employers and clients will be able to see what you can possibly bring to the table that someone else may not be able to. Just like artists have portfolios, professionals can use social media to express who they are and what they bring to the table.

So, make your social media college admissions ready and maintain it throughout college so it will be job recruiter ready when the time comes.

*Finsta meaning: A fake Instagram account, typically set on the private setting that the creator only allows close friends to follow. It is a “second Instagram account many users will maintain, and its content is quite different from their real ("rinsta") account. Think of the "rinsta" as a public persona, where users will share curated images, whereas a "finsta" is a more unfiltered experience” (Molina, 2017).