5 Hidden Social Media Hacks Millennials Can Use to Boost Their Careers

Hello, millennials: Enjoying your avocado toast and unicorn-themed beverages? Millennial life doesn’t have to be known only for fidget spinners and casual dating: It’s important to start building yourself as a brand—an employable brand at that. Now I know that the landscape of careers has changed greatly for your generation, and you’ve moved to a more dynamic setting. The first and foremost thing to remember about advancing your career is that in that respect, we all work in marketing. You are marketing yourself and, thus, you must use marketing tactics. So, with that in mind, here are five things you can do on social media to actually change the way your career is going. Content with content: The basic level of any social medium is content. It doesn’t matter what platforms you want to be active on for your career-advancing endeavors (Hint: It should be all of them): Content is king, and you are the king maker. But, you don’t have to work too hard in understanding what kind of content you should create. BuzzSumo is a great service that tells you what type of content performs best in specific industries, so no matter in what field your career is heading, you can optimize your content to make sure it resonates with any potential employers. Influence the influencers: One of the things people are always looking for is insight. Nowhere is this more common than on social media. The people you want to impress the most are probably leading the field in insight on social media, as well. Tools like Klout and Trackur can help you identify influencers in your industry. Those people probably know people, and impressing them could go a long way in shaping the future ahead of you. Be goofy, be nutty, be different: As a millennial, you probably know what Wendy’s has been doing on social media as of late. With a different approach to social media other than the regular, “We’re wacky but we’re still corporate,” Wendy's has risen above the noise and managed to generate the most retweeted tweet of all-time. In today’s world, where inboxes are flooded with resumes, being weird and different when talking to industry leaders, and even potential employers on social media, could just be the ticket that keeps you in their top of mind. Don’t be afraid to speak truth to power or give an opinion not commonly voiced. Most people aren’t looking for yes men, and if they are, you don’t want to work for them. Put it to the test: No marketing campaign has ever left the gates of a major corporation without rigorous testing. Now, we’re not saying you should assemble a focus group of human-resources pros to test your resume, but some A/B testing has never hurt anyone. Present yourself in various ways in various social media posts and see what garners the best response. Try focusing on the specific people who are in your industry and understand how they react to your content. Become a dataholic: The basis to marketing anything or anyone on social media is understanding what kind of response you’re getting, and the only way to do that is by understanding the data behind your content. Most social media platforms will give you a rudimentary version of this, but tools like Buffer and AgoraPulse can measure your engagement and let you know if you’re doing a good job or not. There you have it: You can have your avocado toast and eat it, too, and still be proactive about your future. You can use these tools and tactics to optimize your career hunting efforts and make sure you’re on the right track. Building your social media presence is a most important part of making a first impression in this day and age, so make sure you do it right. David Edri is CEO of online presentation software provider emaze. Image courtesy of monkeybusinessimages/iStock.