1. Social Media Tips and Best
Practices for New Graduates
Michael Germano
California State University, Los Angeles
2. Agenda
• Online reputation management
• Building an online personal brand
• Social media as a vehicle for ‘proof’ of soft
skills
• Networking
• Career hunting
5. Managing your digital footprint
• Google yourself; Diagnose the problem
• Delete old social media accounts
• Optimize privacy settings for the ones you use
• Create new ones that help (a thoughtful blog,
LinkedIn account, Twitter)
• From here on in: Think before you post!
8. Personal Branding
• You are going to be Googled by employers!
• Create an online presence that reinforces the
brand message delivered during interviews
and networking
• Blogging, Twitter and LinkedIn are the obvious
vehicles
• Use effective images and content
9. Soft skills—the real reason people get hired
Foundational and elemental
Technical skills are meaningless without soft skills that support
them
10. Social Media and Soft Skills
• Represent an opportunity to demonstrate
competence and capability in one of the most
critical soft skills: Communication/writing
• Make sure you post intelligently and
thoughtfully
• Can also demonstrate analytical thinking and
problem solving
11. Social Media? You’re doing it wrong. It’s social networking. The
technology isn’t important. The access to people is what matters.
13. Some social networks matter more than others and
have more worth. Higher value social networks.
14. Networking and Your Career
Search
• Let people know you are looking
• Reach out to people before and after you
apply
• Twitter is particularly helpful since you can
follow and retweet
• Hashtags related to job hunting and industry
conversations can be another source of
network building
