We cannot deny social media’s pervasiveness, but do you properly leverage it for career growth? Let’s cover some of the platforms, techniques, and practices that might help! I also discuss the topic of “Ghosting” and share some leadership development opportunities on the horizon.
For the written article on social media for Career Growth, visit https://thecorelinksolution.com/how-to-use-social-media-to-grow-your-career-in-2024/
To listen to more episodes about Career Growth with James Rosseau, Sr. (aka Trig), go to https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-corelink-solution-with-james-rosseau-sr/id1428240712
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[00:00:00] Welcome, welcome, welcome to another episode of the Corling solution. Thank you for tuning in. Today's show is Jam Packed and really going to cover three topics today.
[00:00:19] Number one, just got to talk a little bit about the evolution and frequency of ghosting. What is ghosting? Why do some do it?
[00:00:29] And how might you take it if you're on the receiving end of being ghosted too?
[00:00:34] Want to talk about some leadership opportunities in terms of training that are coming to market for leaders
[00:00:39] and how you might position yourself to take advantage of it. And then thirdly, last but not least, want to talk about how you grow your profile appropriately on social platforms.
[00:00:49] Hard to deny that if you're living in this day and time, social media is pervasive and using it professionally is a must.
[00:00:57] So without further ado, let's jump into the show. I want to talk a little bit about the topic of ghosting and I guess for a few reasons over the last several months, I've seen some interesting behavior in terms of ghosting one people scheduling actual interviews first interviews by zoom
[00:01:18] and then not showing up for intern roles volunteer roles things such as that. And initially, you start to ask yourself, is it just me? Well, I actually started asking other people about their experiences and then I just searching as always to see what kind of information was out there.
[00:01:34] And no, it is not just me unfortunately. And by the way, if you're not familiar with what ghosting is by definition, it is the concept of abruptly ending communication without some explanation.
[00:01:49] Okay, so you're in the communication process with someone. You actually have expectations in many cases of continuing that conversation and then you just in the conversation walk away from it totally without any further response.
[00:02:02] So that's the technical definition of ghosting. According to a 2018 study, approximately 25% of men and women reported having been ghosted in a romantic relationship and 22% admit to having ghosted someone else.
[00:02:19] So this is so interesting. So on the one hand, 25% of people saying, I've been ghosted, but then if I'm honest, I've also been the ghost star. The Federal Reserve even recognized the phenomenon in a 2018 report in which employers reported being ghosted by employees in a tight labor market.
[00:02:39] So it's not just romantic relationships, casual relationships with friends. It is happening on the employment side. And so that drove me to ask the question of why I had an initial thought, but I really wanted to dig deeper. And so here's some information from psychology today that I think is pretty interesting.
[00:02:59] People respond to being ghosted in many ways from feeling indifferent to deeply portrayed. So that's the person on the other side of being ghosted. That's their response. But why might people do it? The reason often has to do more with the ghoster than the ghosty.
[00:03:14] So those who've been on the receiving end feel better. You didn't do anything. It's often more often about the ghoster. It spares that individual from confrontation, taking responsibility or engaging in the emotional labor of empathy.
[00:03:31] So from the ghosters perspective, let's call them the offender to be clear. The ghoster who cuts off communication, cutting off communication spares the individual from confrontation, taking responsibility or engaging in the emotional labor of empathy.
[00:03:50] And so I'd like to turn this on its head for a moment and talk about the opportunities for ghosters. The fact is that within your life, whether it's form employment as noted, whether it's for romantic relationships, whether it's for casual relationships, the fact is confrontation is a natural part of life. And if you want to make it feel better for you, let's call it healthy confrontation times when you need to engage in something that does not feel good.
[00:04:20] But it has the potential to have great outcomes. And so don't give away your opportunity to grow that muscle, grow the muscle of being able to partake in healthy confrontation.
[00:04:34] The second thing is it said, taking responsibility. So the ghoster walks away from taking responsibility. Well, I don't think I have to elaborate too much on that. We all know we want to grow our ability to accept, execute rightfully responsibility.
[00:04:52] So you forfeit that as a ghoster, you forfeit growing that muscle. No, take the opportunity. Don't forfeit it. And then thirdly, in or engaging in the emotional labor of empathy, I've talked about empathy a number of times on my show. And I think it's so important because when we talk about understanding where someone else is, I think there are several steps to get to empathy. There's hearing. So audibly hearing what someone has to say. There is listening, right?
[00:05:22] You listen, you hear it. There's effective listening where you listen and often play back parts of it to ensure you understood what the person was trying to communicate. And then there is empathy feeling what they feel it is to me, the deepest level of conversation where you actually begin to feel think about that.
[00:05:43] You feel in your body, you feel in your mind. There I say you feel in your heart what that person is experiencing by being a ghoster, you move away from developing that muscle as well.
[00:05:56] And so my encouragement to you family, my encouragement to us as a body, particularly a body of believers. But even if you listen to the show because I know some of you haven't come to Jesus yet, that's okay. I'm going to keep working on you by way.
[00:06:11] I will always be working on you even as a professional and a professional environment, ghosting forfeit your opportunity for growth. My encouragement to you is take that opportunity to grow your ability to be engaged in healthy confrontation, to grow your ability to be responsible, to grow your ability to deal with emotional labor and share empathy.
[00:06:34] A couple of pieces of news for you as well, some career news. I think there's a wonderful leadership development opportunity for you on the way. Many organizations across the world, there was a recent survey just a couple of weeks ago by the Hacker group that said HR leaders across the world have placed first the development of effective leaders as their top priority for 2024. Think about that.
[00:06:57] Organizations have said for 2024, their top priority is the development of effective leaders. The report which garnered responses from over 375 executives found that 65% are prioritizing the development of quote effective leaders for a changing business and workplace.
[00:07:17] And workplace, quote so good. Why is it so good? Trague you ask I'm so glad you asked because we are seeing phenomenal shifts in the work environment, whether you think about work from home and back to office and all the things that that encompasses, whether you think about AI and generative AI, whether you think about other emerging technologies not only is there a lot of change the pace of change in another self has become more rapid.
[00:07:47] Developing leaders who can oversee that change and the mix of what it does for people, the mix of what it does for infrastructure, the mix of technology that is unated versus aided the mix of the financial impacts, the regulatory impacts, the risk profiles and everything involved developing leaders who can understand that is so essential.
[00:08:14] The fact that organizations are ponying up saying we must make this our top priority means that you my friend have the opportunity to get some learning at no cost. I love low cost zero cost learning that is also given to me so I can not only be more effective tomorrow but more effective today.
[00:08:33] So I encourage you take advantage of that if your organization is not already talking about it, the article is from the hack a group. Excuse me, the poll is from the hack a group so you can Google that find a poll share with your your boss, your leader, your manager, your HR business partner, etc and ensure that you sign up to be early one of the things you can always do you don't have to wait for it to come to you inside the organization go ask for it because that way you might be a big excuse me you might be
[00:09:03] able to be a part of the first class, okay. Be a part of the first core or it and help design and so leaders lead getting front of it. One other thing I want to tell you is that this is women's history month. I know you know this but I need to say it out loud to make sure that everyone knows this we are celebrating history month if you go to Holycoach.net and go down to the feature section you'll see all the things we're talking about for women's month there's a couple things we're trying to do one talk to leaders in industry understand their journeys matter fact.
[00:09:33] Next week I'm going to have at least a wide the CEO of the dry university talk about her journey from thinking about this being an administrative rep being an admissions rep excuse me who used to take the phone calls to help new students think about coming into the school to evolving to president and CEO over course of years her dedication the things she's learned the lesson she harness and pass on to her mentees such a good conversation.
[00:10:01] The second thing we're doing is also asking women who are CHH artists to share stories and such about those that have inspired them I think you will enjoy so go holycoach.net right down to the features section and you will see what we're doing for women's month I'll be back after some music and we're going to go into the career clinic again what do you need to learn so you can leverage social media for your professional career.
[00:10:28] If you do not have the Holy Coach or radio app I employ you to download it right now it is critical you have it on your mobile phone on the homepage so when you open up your phone you go right into the app like you should open your phone and then click on the Holy Coach or radio app and check out what's going on between all the wonderful shows the music mixes et cetera I think it is a valuable part of your day.
[00:10:50] So as I said at the top of the show today's career clinic is about how do you leverage social media for your career.
[00:10:57] How do you leverage social media for your career it's difficult for any of us to deny again that social media is pervasive we use it constantly sometimes without even thought right it's hard to be anywhere now even at a stoplight and look to the left for right sometimes and not see people looking down at their phones and often it is social media.
[00:11:18] But how do you use it for your professional career we've gathered some information that we think will be good tips for you for people who like the outline while I'm talking I'm going to give you eight tips eight tips that I think that will help you so tip number one clean house as you grow and think about from where you may have been from when social media first started in the pictures and such you posted then to where you are now could be drastically different just take some diligence do a review.
[00:11:47] And decide what you may need to clean out particularly if you are working on professional growth and particularly the professional platform so you may think a little differently about Facebook versus LinkedIn et cetera but overall do consider this people when they go to interview you and consider you for a role are going to look at your social media that's not even a question anymore it's not about waiting for it used to be a male career to come in looking at the envelope and.
[00:12:17] Is the envelope nicer envelope is the paper for the resume nice or it is the lettering right are the lines written correctly we we've advanced a lot light is online email and looking at a person to get a chance to see who they are before I begin to work with them I mean think about that from an employer's perspective.
[00:12:35] We used to interview people and hope that within 30 45 minute one hour interview and maybe a number of them and then spread across number people that we have a sense of who that person is beyond their accomplishment and things they've done experiences we want to know can I work with this person well now people are using social media to help inform that judgment call and so please think about it that way if the person goes to your social media page does it tell you that you're not going to be able to do that.
[00:13:05] Well the story about you that you want to let's say number one to pick the platform of course you can be on all platforms but one thing is for sure a primary platform is highly advised you can spread yourself way too thin trying to do all things on all platforms to pick a primary platform where you're going to grow your social media presence linked in obviously is recommended with 900 million users in 200 countries hard to deny the pervasive.
[00:13:35] So you can also have a list of links in and what it means and professional areas and it also has the ability to post articles and create newsletters and such as well so not only can you be there show who you are you can author and create content which is key.
[00:13:49] Step three build a strong present so once you have your information up so on and so forth it's about then how you communicate and one of the things I would say is do what you do talk about it be who you are and talk about it the things in your professional life that makes sense that you do your skills your accomplishments events you may be attending conferences so on and so forth post about talk about it what did you gain from the conference where did you learn at the webinar what is the tip or so you may want to pass on.
[00:14:18] To others that work in a similar area such as you step four or tip for excuse me optimize your profile even if you're on LinkedIn LinkedIn does work with S.E.O. mean is search engine optimization it is looking for things to understand what to match with you where to draw you forward and other people's feeds etc and so optimize your profile make sure you use keywords and such in your profile that match with others you want to connect with so if you and industry A.
[00:14:48] What are some of the buzzwords industry A that may make sense for you to put within your profile use a high quality image I'm going to say that one again use a high quality image not the image from the barbecue where you crop everyone out and then you have your photo no use a high quality is take a picture and it's not you know back in the day we need we needed to go to a photographer studio serious or something else and take a photo.
[00:15:16] You can get a good quality image with most mobile phones today so pick a background be somewhere nice have someone family member love one etc take several photos going to canva brush it up a little bit and move on the high quality photo if you need some tips on that S.E.M. rush has a great guide on how to do the quality photos as well as the S.E.O.
[00:15:40] So S.E.M. rush is a great resource for that to five excuse me share engaging content sounds like a no brain of course share engaging content though I mentioned some of before conferences you may have tended webinars you've been at what you learn what would the experiences
[00:15:57] would you recommend it to someone else and why share engaging content always look to add value to others in your community in your industry what did you learn that maybe people aren't up taking on as you see topics discussed.
[00:16:12] What can you contribute do you have questions about it do you see it slightly differently have you had a slightly different experience add to those conversations for the point of adding value to others who do what you do.
[00:16:28] Step six or excuse me tips six engage in those industry conversations so not only do you need to offer things and create new but engage in the conversation and particularly in the conversation.
[00:16:42] So let me underscore industry conversations so one of the things you'll find is most industries have different groups inside of LinkedIn I'm just going to stay with LinkedIn as the let's call out preferred social source for professionals.
[00:16:57] Most industries have user groups so if you're in the financial services industry you'll find tons of financial groups and even niched down to different areas in financial services right so if you're on credit card you'll find a credit card
[00:17:09] for professionals group if you're a lending you'll find a lending's professionals group get into those groups subscribe to those groups that way you'll get in your feed conversations that are happening and then you can be in the conversation and you may say to yourself why would I want to do it why because if there are groups and those groups are growing and they're thriving guess what it contains a lot of executives typically who are leaders in that industry
[00:17:35] and those are the people you want to make sure know you you know them etc. And by the way I'm a pretty perform proponent of when you are in the interview process you are also interviewing the company you are trying to see if the culture matches up to what they say it is the values are actually being lived out et cetera.
[00:17:54] Therefore this gives you the chance to better understand the companies by looking at their leaders in these industry groups etc. And starting to make a list of the companies that you think you want to work with think you want to work for but then as you experience things some may flow to the top and guess what some may drop to the bottom tip number seven follow those companies and influencers as I just said as you announced industry discussions those forms etc.
[00:18:22] and side of LinkedIn begin to follow those that makes sense to you right so now you go from this large industry vertical to spread across maybe eight 10 companies and influences that you say yes these people are emulating some of the things that I wish to emulate or do.
[00:18:40] These people are talking about regularly topics that I want to be engaged in these folks have a point of view that I appreciate and believe I can learn from so follow companies and influencers and tip eight last but not least collaborate and I would add collaborate excuse me collaborate carefully one of the things about collaborations should be as a standard you have gotten to know the person a little bit before you decide to collaborate on a post do a video together.
[00:19:10] So for the collaborations are powerful as we know listen the more people we add we get closer to creating a fist versus using the singular finger so collaborate carefully again continue to purposely and with intention growing your career family and you too yes you do can leverage social media to grow as a professional.