Have you considered of using social media for personal use? Can’t help but wonder what should you post and how many times should you post in a day? In a social media, there are tons you can do including finding more networks, starting a business and more but learning about its professional settings is vital.

Why do we choose social media?

Initially social media was only for entertainment, but now it is to communicate and work.

Being a user, you can explore ideas and trends, have more networks, generate traffic to your work/ business and from here, you can refine and enhance your brand.

Today, social media is way too popular that it has created issues among users. Many find it hard to separate personal use from professional one. And nowadays, what you mention online can be used against you. There are ways you can do to protect your privacy and manage who sees what content, but you must be cautious. Therefore, the more serious your social media activity can be, the better.

If you are less cautious in your personal account, at least be more aware of your company’s social media policy; many companies are implementing to alter their policies.

LinkedIn can be one of the social media for personal use

Individuals and businesses should not overlook this serious, professional social networking.

LinkedIn, with over 500 million users, is the quintessential professional network, yet it’s not being used to its full potential. Most are users on LinkedIn but never know how to leverage it.

Most people take it for granted and only use it when they are forced to change employment. At that point, it’s usually too late. When you don’t need it, it’s preferable to learn how to use it. It’s best to leverage LinkedIn as a career management tool.

Extending Your Influence and Network

LinkedIn provides a number of options for expanding your network by discovering and connecting with relevant experts in your field. The main thing to do is to find, connect and interact with new or existing users. You should also upload your own content on a regular basis, demonstrating your knowledge.

Learn how to give and receive recommendations for people you’ve previously worked with using the recommendation feature. You should only offer recommendations to those whose work you are confident in. Employers who receive recommendations on LinkedIn are said to take them almost as seriously as those received in more traditional ways. So, if anything gives you pause, you should find a polite approach to decline a recommendation request.

Developing and Expanding a Business

LinkedIn may be used in a variety of ways for businesses, ranging from hiring to producing sales leads, depending on your industry. You should research whether LinkedIn’s advertising features make sense for you, same goes to other platforms.

You may create a company page on LinkedIn and build an online community around it to attract customers and future consumers. See the official LinkedIn for Business guide for additional information.

Job Searching

While finding jobs is the most important part, individuals may use LinkedIn to track specific firms, people, and job openings. Spend some time getting to know the search features that allow you to drill down into networks of people, companies, and job postings in greater depth.

When it comes to finding a new job, numbers matter, so put in the effort to expand your network. But make sure you do it wisely: It is not a good tactic to send invitations to complete strangers in the hopes of engaging with them or someone they know. Instead, look for legitimate connections you have with people — such as your alma mater — and reach out with a personal note and an invitation to connect.

Remember this

The free LinkedIn account is adequate, but you might want to try the premium version. It is available at a variety of price points, starting at $29.99 a month. That’s a lot of money, but if you’re looking for work, it’s worth it for the features like the ability to email people you don’t know through the site and connect with recruiters in innovative ways.

Twitter

Although the number of characters has changed, Twitter remains all about making instant connections and sharing your thoughts.

With 328 million users, Twitter’s most famous and infamous feature, the 140-character limit, was recently altered. It gives you additional room to convey your thoughts and ideas by doubling the restriction to 280 characters. However, bear in mind that brevity, along with the smart use of photos and videos, will help you stand out; you don’t have to use full 280 characters in every post.

Twitter is a platform that is more conversational as compared to others, but users should learn what retweets, replies, and direct messages (DMs) are. Retweets (RTs) are a way for you to share other people’s postings and optionally comment on, others’ posts. If you select “quote tweet,” you can write a comment above someone’s tweet; if you simply select “retweet,” it will be distributed to your followers without any commentary from you.

Replies are a public way to comment to other people’s posts and carry on a public conversation, whereas direct messages are a private way to communicate with someone. To be able to DM someone, they must either follow you or have chosen the option to enable anyone to DM them. Group DMs are a great method for a large group to conduct more focused conversations. Although Twitter allows you to create a private account (“protected” in their parlance), having an open account makes more sense if you’re using it for business.

Extending Your Influence and Network

Because of Twitter’s immediate nature, you can:

• Keep up with what’s going on in your fields of interest in real time.
• Share, comment, and join a global conversation that goes beyond people you are friends with.

Twitter’s live video tool allows you to share videos and communicate with individuals’ posting video that matter to you. Another approach to engage with and build your network is to use Twitter Polls, which allows you to give users up to four options to vote from and see the results in real time. Businesses frequently conduct polls regarding specific items to gauge reactions from customer and potential customer.

Developing and Expanding a Business

Smart, relevant, and timely posts, especially when hashtags are used professionally, can help you improve your company’s reputation. When popular hashtags are relevant to you, participating in them is a good idea. Using hashtags around your products or services on occasion also helps. The idea is to keep hashtags short, clear, and unique so that they aren’t hijacked by another business with a similar hashtag.

Twitter’s ad platform allows you to target certain audiences and reach out to them, so they may learn more about your company and become followers and engage with you. Take a look at its official guide to learn more about how it may help you with your internet business.

Job Searching

Everyone is preoccupied with gaining more followers, but who you follow is more essential when it comes to job hunting. Create influencer lists by industry and topic (these lists can be public or private) to see what they’re interested in, what they’re thinking about, and how to reach out and connect with them. You can contribute and demonstrate how relevant and beneficial you can be when someone in your industry asks a question or requests assistance. There have been countless cases where Twitter conversations have led to face-to-face encounters.

Remember this

Following proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation rules will assist you in standing out and making a positive impression. Helpful: A clear bio that conveys who you are, as well as a recent, identifiable headshot, are also beneficial.

Facebook

Facebook is a worldwide phenomenon beloved by both companies and your cousins, with the largest user base.

Facebook is the most powerful and influential social network, with over two billion users globally. It’s an excellent way to stay in touch with family, friends, and friends’ friends. Most users are using it as a personal space network when it can also be used for professional networking and business. Recent stories regarding the 2016 election have shown that the platform was essential in spreading both information and deception.

Facebook Live, which allows you to broadcast live to the entire world in real time, can be a handy tool. Businesses, in addition to journalists, have used Live to provide behind-the-scenes content, conduct employee Q&As, and host other events.

Facebook, like most platforms, allows you to establish privacy settings for your content so that you can control who sees what. Content may be seen by everyone online, only your friends, or specific groups you formed (coworkers, for instance, family or your high school teammates). People in majority are unconcerned about these settings and are occasionally surprised by, say, who viewed photos that were not intended for their eyes.

Extending Your Influence and Network

Facebook can be used for a variety of purposes, including:

• Make connections with influencers in your field.
• Share articles and other content that demonstrates your passions to the world.
• Help others shape their opinions of you.

Of course, just because you post something doesn’t guarantee that it will be seen by everyone. Facebook’s algorithm determines what content is shown to certain people and is based on your own settings as well as an ever-changing set of factors. These can include determining how relevant the content is to your audience, predicting whether people will comment or share it, and comparing it to other content available at the time.

Developing and Expanding a Business

In addition to a personal profile, making a business page allows you to connect with people who are interested in learning more about your profession. You can share updates, progress reports, and ideas to a wide range of people who may not regularly visit your website.

Facebook’s robust ad tools allow you to target potential customers and clients based on particular criteria, and strategic use of Facebook Live may take your viewers behind the scenes of your business. Understanding how Facebook advertising operate is critical to any digital marketing strategy. Given how difficult it is to have your content seen by everyone, you may feel compelled to pay to promote your postings.

Connecting with a community that engages with your content is essential for a business to succeed on Facebook. If your product, service, or idea is something people like and want to connect with in the offline world, they will want to do the same on Facebook. Take a look at Facebook’s official guide to learn more about how to use Facebook for business.

Job Searching

Follow companies you’re interested in on Facebook to learn ideas about openings and opportunities. Make use of your personal network to find new client or employee leads. If you let your friends and family know what you’re looking for, they may be able to help you.

Remember this

Legacy Contact is a unique feature offered by Facebook. It allows you to appoint someone to manage your account after your death without providing them access to it while you are still alive.

Everyone is encouraged to obey the online instructions and create a Legacy Contact today.

Instagram

Instagram is becoming more than just a place for gorgeous photographs; it’s also becoming a place for business.

Instagram, which is based on images, videos, and captions, now has 800 million users and is becoming more mainstream in the business sector. Instagram should be a part of your business toolkit if you and your work are visually driven. Any consumer-facing company, such as travel, beauty, and more, can thrive on Instagram, but we’re also seeing B2B companies like General Electric and IBM use the platform.

Extending Your Influence and Network

The obsessive Instagram audience adores great visuals, and you can leverage your content to grow an audience on the platform.

Patience and experimentation are essential as you search for the right formula. Spend time, go through popular hashtags to see whether your content fits; this will attract more people to discover you. The @ sign can also be used to tag other related accounts. More tips can be found in DigitalTrends’ great guide.

Developing and Expanding a Business

Instagram Stories, which allow you to tell a story with many photographs and videos, are examples of how to use Instagram in a commercial setting. These stories last for 24 hours, which means time frame should be taken into consideration when deciding what content to post. Most of the time, it’s best to create visuals and graphics that can be used across numerous platforms as they have a longer shelf life.

You should also look at Instagram’s ad options to determine how they fit into your overall strategy. Explore Instagram to see how you can make yourself present and attract new consumers to be excited about what you do. Take a peek at its official guide to learn more about its business potential.

Job Searching

Job seeking on Instagram, like many other platforms, is about listening to and communicating with relevant companies and individuals. Instagram may be used to learn about specific companies and their cultures, as well as to discover what is affecting decision-makers in various industries.

Remember this

Much of what you see on Instagram is extensively created with professional assistance and attempting to recreate their scope and popularity on your own is unlikely.

Snapchat

This popular social media platform is undergoing significant adjustments.

Snapchat was once the hottest network, thanks to its 250 million users and a massive I.P.O. in March 2017, but it has recently cooled off as Instagram has emulated some of its best ideas and a major overhaul has been announced.

Snapchat may make sense for you depending on your industry and who you’re attempting to reach (particularly millennials and younger). If not, you might be curious to compare “Instagram vs. Snap”.

Snapchat provides a number of tools and recommendations for businesses, but majority are based on paid ads. Snapchat offers an official business guide and highlights how a variety of companies have used the platform.

And Keep in Mind …

… nothing remains the same for too long.

These are merely suggestions for these five social media platforms. (There are many others with more niche audiences.) Each person’s experience and success rates with social media in business will differ. It’s more of an art than a science, with constantly changing algorithms and technology (as well as the whims of other users) are in constant flux.

A word of caution: Keeping up with all the multiple platforms — and coming up with many things to share every day — can be exhausting. Occasionally, lurking and analysing what other people and companies are doing might be a refreshing approach to review what types of posts are most appropriate for you and your business.

The greatest way to ensure success is to think carefully before posting and to analyse what you’re posting as well as your overall online activities on a regular basis. You’re not going to have time to devote to all of these networks — or whatever comes next — so pick and choose the ones that make the most sense for you, your subject areas, and your schedule.