Social media plays a huge role in today’s society, especially in your career. It is a tool that is becoming increasingly used in both job screening and advertising. Through this project, I was able to create a professional image for myself online. By doing so, it not only makes myself appear better to employers, but it also allows me to engage in the fashion community before even entering into the workforce. It is perfect for not only advertising yourself, but for educating yourself. When it comes to getting a job, employers nowadays are likely to always look at a candidate’s social media before hiring them. The “Keep It Clean” article on social media screenings states that 70 percent of employers use social media to screen applicants and 43 percent continue to check on current employees using it (Driver). While they are mainly looking to check your qualifications, it is easy to find downfalls to someone’s character on their social media pages as well, and many employers will end up not hiring someone solely off of those findings. This could be anything from inappropriate photos or language to gossip about previous employers. It is also important to maintain your professional image even after the hiring process because you never know when someone is checking it. Since learning how big of an impact social media has on your job outlook, I made sure to put a lot of effort into making mine look perfect.
Facebook and Twitter have proven to be the most popular in the professional world, so I chose to make a Twitter. I started with the basics by adding a profile picture and creating a bio. This is the first thing people will see, so it is crucial that this part looks good. I used my most recent headshot that is simple and professional, but also shows a little of my personal style since it is a fashion account. As for my bio, I kept it short and simple stating my school, class, location, and major. As I achieve more in my fashion career I will get to add to it.
The next step is following other accounts. This helped to give me inspiration on what my first posts should look like. I chose to follow both fashion news outlets, brands, and individual style bloggers in order to get a good variety of content. I followed some that reflect my personal taste and others that are way outside of my realm of comfortability to expand my outlook. All of the accounts I chose looked professional and high quality. It is important to follow a wide array of accounts in order to get a good idea of what all kinds of people in the industry post whether it be good or bad. It’s always helpful to see examples of what not to post as well.
After exploring many other accounts, it was time to create posts of my own. For my first tweets, I decided to showcase some of my own looks. I used what I learned from many fashion bloggers to create a template consisting of my outfit picture with a short description and links to the brands featured in the look. The pictures I used were high quality to keep up my professional image. In addition to my outfit pictures, I also shared a jacket I made asking for feedback as it is something I am actually considering making and selling in the near future and it fits my topic very well. My content is primarily aimed towards young women. My style varies day to day which I believe will help my account appeal to a larger audience as it encompasses many different types of fashion. I made sure to keep my posts informative while also keeping a more laid back personal tone to connect with my ideal viewers.
In every industry there are guidelines, written or not, that each person should follow. However, there are not as many rules to social media in the fashion industry because it is such an open field full and accepting of many different trends. It really just depends on the type of account. For example, fashion news accounts follow the structure of any basic news outlet, but focus on fashion related topics. Fashion bloggers typically post pictures and videos of their outfits, promote themselves or their brand if they have one, and share some personal thoughts and opinions. In comparison, brand accounts primarily post promotions for their new products and sales as it is not encouraged or even allowed for them to share views on things like politics.
The tone and content of communication also depends on what accounts are being used. Fashion bloggers are much more casual with each other and most are very supporting of one another. Brands are going to be much more formal, usually just replying to customers’ concerns and questions.
Fashion news accounts on the other hand tend to be more critical. I think of “fashion police” when I see them. I plan to follow along the lines of the bloggers as that is more of where I fit in at the moment.
Overall, my new account is quite different from my current personal social media accounts. It is much more put together and professional, whereas my others are laid back and fun. I wanted to still keep my personality evident without changing too much by just polishing up my look a bit and honing in on my fashion, eliminating the more private aspects of my life. I think in the future, once I observe more how bloggers run their accounts, I will get a better idea of how to formulate posts and what is appropriate to share or not. Until starting this class, I never fully realized the true importance of social media in the professional world. I had always seen it as a form of entertainment so learning more uses for it has definitely changed my outlook. I now feel much more informed and prepared going into my career search with my professional social media account.
