Social Media: Communication of the 21st Century
Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have become hugely popular over the last decade. Being able to communicate to people around the world, and connecting to thousands, if not millions of people has become an important part of the 21st Century.
Did you know, having social media accounts can be extremely useful to finding a job or an internship. Firstly, you can connect to people within an industry of your choosing, following their work closely, and if you are lucky, you will be able to interact with them.
Most importantly, social media sites can be used to promote you and your work. Sharing work on social media sites for people to view and share is important for spreading your work, until someone could potentially stumble across it. This could lead to a job opportunity. Sites such as LinkedIn, are there for you to promote yourself to potential future employees.
LinkedIn is arguably the most important site in terms of promoting yourself. The site, which launched in 2003, is a business- oriented social media site. LinkedIn allows its users to promote themselves in ways such as, connecting with people in similar industries as you wish to join. You can upload your educational history, as well as past experience and skills. There are 14 million users in the United Kingdom alone and over 200 million worldwide, which is hugely impressive for a niche social media site.
Other social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook are great ways to showcase work to people around the world. We at FAI use social media sites to promote our work to a high success, bringing in more viewers and interacting with people from around the world.
If photography, graphic design or art is your passion, then sites such as Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr, are great for showcasing your portfolio of work. Keeping your pages updated constantly with work, will not only keep you motivated it could lead to future potential employment.
The power of social media, means now more than ever it is easier for you to promote yourself to the general public. Facebook is the most popular amongst social media sites, with over a billion users, yes a billion users joined up. Twitter also boasts a large following with over 650 million active users, with over 58 million Tweets sent out on a daily basis. These sites can be active from computers, mobile phones or tablets, making it almost impossible to avoid at this rate.
According to BostInno, 39% of social media users would rather use Twitter more than any other social media site to share and highlight their work.
As of January 2016, Tumblr has over 555 million monthly visitors. Combing all social media sites, and interacting with the general public will work wonders for you and your portfolio of work.
Looking for something a little more professional? Google+ is popular with businesses. With over 500 million users, the social site has proved to be hugely popular after what seemed like a slow start. Google are trying to compete with the big boys. The site is also extremely popular with students, bloggers and photographers. Google+ allows its users to connect with other people and companies, so this is extremely useful for linking up with companies that you share a similar interest with.
The power of social media, means now more than ever, you have the chance to have your work seen by a larger audience. Make the most of what is in front of you.