Social media is full of trivial sharing and blatant self-promotion. Are you on social media to read trivia and ads? Or do you want to read interesting and enticing posts?
When you use social media, you are reinforcing your personal brand. You should always be trying to strengthen how others in your career and personal life think of you.
Personally, I am not interested in your daily thoughts and experiences about your drive to work, or what you ate for breakfast, unless it is somehow relevant to me and the rest of your audience. It would be pertinent to show photographs of a gala dinner you attended alongside career influencers, but not holding a pint or a glass of wine at your local pub.
However, we also look for humour once in a while, and there are ways to teeter on the edge of your personal brand and still advance your career. For instance, while I am normally very serious in my postings on all the major social media platforms, I sometimes like to show my British sense of humour and share something funny I have picked up.
I am always careful to think about my audience and always ask myself if I think they would find it humourous. I also like to end all of my posts and shares with thought-provoking questions that will hopefully resonate, provoke intrigue, and spark answers that get a conversation going.
On Facebook there can be a happy medium between personal and professional. We all must be careful how we display our thoughts and conversation points to our worldwide audience.
Many of my executive career management clients are skeptical about using Facebook. Yet this site has changed its direction in the last few years and can now be used as an educational and conversational tool encompassing both your professional and personal life.
Still skeptical? Visit me on Facebook to see how I use it as a tool in both my professional and personal life, and how you can too.
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