Let’s face it. The way we find professional opportunities has changed dramatically.
When I started college, computers were just getting started. Yes, I am really calling myself out here. Newspaper classified ads were still one of the places you looked for jobs, and applying usually meant getting your resume into someone’s hands.
Today, opportunities can come from almost anywhere. A LinkedIn connection. Someone sharing your name in a meeting. A former colleague recommending you. A person who heard you speak. Someone reading something you wrote six months ago and remembering you when the right opportunity comes along.
And sometimes you aren’t even looking when it happens.
That’s why I think we need to look at social media differently. It’s not simply somewhere to post when you’re searching for a job. Used intentionally, it gives people an opportunity to know what you know, how you think and what you bring to the table long before either of you needs something from the other.
Start With What You Know
Before worrying about what to post, start with a much better question:
What do I know that could be useful to someone else?
You probably know more than you give yourself credit for.
A hairstylist knows which cuts work with different face shapes and what’s changing in color trends. An accountant knows what a small business owner should do before an audit. An HR professional understands what makes an interview go sideways. A manager who’s led a team through a difficult transition knows things about change that someone experiencing it for the first time doesn’t.
You don’t need to position yourself as the world’s foremost expert.
Share what you’ve learned from actually doing the work.
That’s expertise.
Let People See How You Think
One of the most valuable things social media can do professionally is give people a glimpse beyond your resume.
A resume tells me what you’ve done.
Your ideas can show me how you think.
Share an observation from your industry. Talk about something your team learned. Offer your perspective on a change happening in your profession. Celebrate someone else’s work and explain why you think it matters.
You don’t need to turn every experience into “content.” And you certainly don’t need to post five times a day.
But if someone looks at your LinkedIn profile after hearing your name, give them something that helps them understand you.
Join the Conversation
Visibility isn’t only about publishing your own posts.
Comment on other people’s ideas. Ask thoughtful questions. Congratulate people when something good happens. Share someone’s work when you genuinely think other people should see it.
In other words, act like a person.
Social media works a lot better when we remember there’s another human being on the other side of the screen.
Some of the best professional relationships I’ve developed online didn’t begin with someone pitching me or asking for something. They started with conversations.
Those conversations add up.
Make It Easy to Learn More About You
Once someone becomes curious about you, don’t make them work too hard to figure out who you are.
Keep your LinkedIn profile current. Make sure your headline reflects what you actually do now, not what you did five years ago. Use a professional photograph that looks like you, and give people an easy way to contact you when appropriate.
If you have a professional website, portfolio, published work, interviews, podcasts, presentations or other examples of your expertise, make those easy to find too.
You don’t need to build an enormous digital footprint. You simply want the pieces that do exist to tell a reasonably consistent story about who you are and what you bring to your work.
Don’t Wait Until You Need Something
This may be the biggest mistake people make.
They wait until they need a job to become visible.
Suddenly they’re updating LinkedIn, reconnecting with people they haven’t spoken to in years and posting every day because they need something to happen quickly.
Professional relationships don’t work particularly well that way.
Build them while things are good.
Share what you know when you aren’t asking for anything. Support other people. Stay curious about what’s happening in your profession. Keep your information current.
Then, when you do need the network you’ve built—or when someone in that network needs exactly what you bring—you aren’t introducing yourself from scratch.
They already know something about you.
Your Next Opportunity May Already Be Looking
You can’t control when the next opportunity will appear.
You can control whether you’ve made it possible for someone to discover you when it does.
That doesn’t mean becoming an influencer. It doesn’t mean sharing every detail of your life online, and it certainly doesn’t mean spending your entire day on social media.
It means being intentional about what you allow people to see.
Because somewhere out there, someone may be looking for the experience, perspective or expertise you already have.
Make it a little easier for them to find you.
Sandy Adams 