How To Keep Your Social Media Personal and PRofessional

We’ve all heard the advice “in order to get hired after graduation, do not post anything you would not want your future employer to see.” However, being Public Relations students, we have the opportunity to use social media to our advantage. Social media provides a platform for us to market ourselves, network with others and keep up-to-date on new trends. At the same time, we can still use it to keep in touch with friends and take Buzzfeed quizzes. Here are some tips and tricks for maintaining the balance between personal and professional on social media:

Be aware of what you post and repost. Social media has given us the ability to share our lives with the world, the good and bad. This general rule applies to thinking twice before posting pictures from a party, but also checking out someone’s bio before retweeting them. Also, if you’re having a bad day or have the urge to start an argument with a friend over social media, don’t. Put the phone or laptop down until you’re feeling better. Keep in mind, social media is a reflection of your life aka make your brand one that people will remember.

Interact with your audience. Commenting on others Facebook posts or recommending a blog post via Twitter are great ways to promote your own friends and followers, while building relationships. LinkedIn has also become a new form of promoting your professional self. By searching #PRSSA or “PR student” you can find people with similar interests and make more connections within your own city and around the country. To market yourself personally and professionally, create a bio on Twitter that people can relate to. Whether it’s tagging @PRowlPR if you’re a staff member or mentioning that you play a sport for your school’s team, you are guaranteed more exposure.

 Change your privacy settings (maybe). If you do plan on posting and tweeting things that could be considered inappropriate or controversial, make your security settings private. With that being said, professionals do understand you have a personal life and would probably find you boring if all you posted about was your internship or job. One way to decide whether or not you should post something is to ask yourself, “would I do or say this in real life?” or “would I want my younger sibling to see this?”

How do you balance work and play on social media? Let us know in the comments!

This guest blog post was written by PRowl staff member Merideth Ketterer. Follow Merideth on Twitter @M_Ketterer.