By Reyna Ochoa
Pulse Staff Reporter
Social media is a useful way to market yourself. While you are in college, you need to be developing your own personal brand, so that potential employers will know who you are and what you can do.
Setting up a LinkedIn profile, blog, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram help build your brand. Staying current on social media offers useful ways of finding job and internship opportunities in a competitive world.
Identify what makes you unique from someone else, such as experiences, skills, values and accomplishments.
Melanie Mendez Gonzales, a blogger/ambassador at www.quemeanswhat.com, “Know what you are talking about. That would help you decide to choose where you are going at least to start, because everyone is going to be different.”
Natalie Barajas, a public information officer at PAC, said, “I want to make sure that someone who writes a sentence, writes it correctly, because that is how you’re marketing yourself. If you can’t write a sentence, they are probably not going to hire you.”
Students need to have a strong understanding of language and strong writing skills. A lot of times you are not meeting that person face-to-face but via an email, a cover letter or a resumé.
Andrew Valdez, a senior multimedia specialist at PAC, said, “Try to sell yourself by creating a LinkedIn profile, a blog and an online portfolio.”
LinkedIn is a social media site that helps students network with professionals in the same field.
Susan Price, a serial entrepreneur who uses the website about.me, said, “I market myself in many online profiles. It does not cost me anything, and it’s a great search engine optimization tool.”
Business cards, though not social media, are a good way to promote yourself; they help you make a connection with a potential work contact. A useful way to remember people is to write down notes about the person on the back of the card.
Arianna Lay, PAC adviser/team leader, said, “In reality, social media can actually hurt you rather than help you.”
Lay talked about the importance of using social media professionally. You don’t want posts that will haunt you down the line.
Maggie Mullikin, a coordinator of graduate outreach and special programs at Elon University in North Carolina, advises students to develop their skills, sit down and write all of their accomplishments. Stay current and know your field’s currents events, she said, and tweet about the companies that are important within your industry.
“Perception, branding yourself, exploring every avenue and looking at all the options where you can take your degree is the way to choose your career path,” said Mullikin. Check out her website www.elon.edu/imedia.
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