What’s a great way to land a marketing job? By having several social media profiles that demonstrate your writing skills and ability to grow a following. Once you do get the job, do you stop optimizing your social media and posting daily? Preferably not, but why? Keeping up with your social media once you have a job can have long term benefits such as landing a future job and further developing your skills.
What is microblogging?
Microblogging is writing short and frequent posts on an already existing platform. It’s a sharp contrast to traditional blogging that uses longer posts with images and is meant to be sharp, succinct and pointed. Microblogging takes several forms, whether it be quick and snappy tweets or unique photos on Instagram with a short story attached. These small posts accumulate over time and demonstrates a knack for storytelling and thought leadership in the subject you focus on.
Buffer is a widely-used tool to help you schedule posts in advance so you don’t have to worry about keeping up with it every day. Aim for tweeting at least once a day and sharing a relevant post on LinkedIn twice a week. Instagram is great if you enjoy taking photos and Facebook makes sense if you are okay with posting work/career related material.
What should you microblog about?
Blog about a topic that you care about and add your unique lense, or point of view, to the subject. This topic or area doesn’t have to be directly related to the field you’re in, but that can definitely help. Maybe there’s a certain area in the field that you’re interested in, such as digital marketing with a focus on new automation technologies. Take one of our apprentices for example, Reese Garcia, who loves all things digital marketing but has a speciality in PPC. If you’re passionate about the topic, it will show and the quality of your posts will reflect that.
Why is microblogging helpful for a marketing career?
- Improves your writing skills - Even though these aren’t long and complex posts, they demonstrate your ability to write concisely and consistently about a specific topic of interest. Especially if a marketing role requires social media skills, you’ll need to prove your ability to run multiple platforms and fill them with relevant content.
- Highlights storytelling abilities - One highly sought after skill as a marketer is the ability to tell a brand’s story with words and pictures. What better way to create a work sample of this than to tell your own story on your social media?
- Could lead to a job offer - Further down the road, a hiring manager might stumble upon your Twitter and see that you’re a thought leader a particular area. Without any effort on your part, that person might reach out to you about a new job opportunity. You didn’t apply and this hiring manager is already interested in you, awesome!
Microblogging and social media is a part of your digital portfolio whether you want it to be or not. Almost all potential employers will look up candidates on social media to get to know them better, which means it is essential for all your portfolios to be optimized and up-to-date. (Read about how you could land a job via social media) In addition to social media profiles, you’ll need a concrete digital portfolio - here’s a great resource for refreshing your digital portfolio. Don’t have a portfolio yet? Here’s how to create one in 20 minutes.
Have you realized the benefit of refreshing and optimizing your social media profiles? Here’s a resource for each platform to check out:
Remember, just a little love and care to your social profiles even after landing a job can go a long way in landing your next marketing job.
Are you still looking for that perfect marketing job? Download the free ebook Nailing the Job Hunt today! It’s filled with tips on how to land a marketing job and stand out from the competition.
