9 Social Media Tips for Students

Social media is a challenging space to navigate. Not having a profile is social suicide, but having one can lead to people of influence seeing what you are up to. Social media is your identity to the world today and whether you are applying to college, applying to competitive fellowships, or a job, its safe to assume that people will be looking your profiles. So with that in mind, here are 9 things that you should be doing in order to make your social media profiles targeted to everyone: 

1. It might seem obvious, but get rid of any negative posts and pictures, both those you've posted and the ones you're tagged in. Coaches, employers, and deans do judge you by the company you keep.
2. Highlight the good stuff. If you’re a volunteer, sing in a choir, are part of an environmental association, or participate in another community activity that makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside, be sure to write about it online, even if it’s just a couple of Tweets. Post so that Google will pick it up. Make it your Facebook status, or better yet start a blog about how cool the experience was and the interesting people you met.
3. Remember what the Internet really is: a giant public record. They say nothing posted to the Web ever truly goes away, and you might be surprised how quickly and easily your personal information can be shared. 
4. Make a professional profile such as one on LinkedIn. This way you can direct professionals to that site and deter them from snooping on your other properties
5. Make a decision to let someone whose opinion you value highly (parents, favorite aunt, mentor, etc.) be connected to you on all of your social media sites. Even if you are saying to yourself, “No way! That is my personal space,” remember these people want you to be successful. This is about having your back, not invading your privacy. I look out for my cousins all the time; it’s often less invasive to them than their parents, and they trust I’ll only send them a (private) message about a post if it’s really inappropriate
6. Speaking of privacy, make sure to continue to privatize your social network accounts. You should know exactly what the world can see of your profile and posts. And keep in mind that privacy polices can change at any time and all the time. Being proactive will help you down the road.
7. Remember that just because you don’t post pictures of every event or party you go to, it does not mean it wasn’t fun or didn’t happen. Even though we are encouraged to post every detail of our lives online, you have to refrain sometimes. The time is now.
8. Download secureme.me, a free app that connects to Facebook and alerts you of what looks less than reputable right now on your profile, pictures, and posts. If you are already in hot water, check out Reputation.com; just be aware that it comes with fees.
9. Give your phone a break. This is especially true if you’re upset and feel like you might say something you regret later. You could also benefit from just turning your phone off once a week and giving those texting fingers a rest. It could save you and your family money, and who knows—you just might enjoy being disconnected

If you have any questions, comment below or come on over for a cup of coffee. We will be happy to help! 

How to make a stellar LinkedIn account

Since we were talking about LinkedIn this week, we thought of following up with another post on the best practices when making a LinkedIn account. While the linkedIn API is really good at telling you what all is needed here are top tips for high school students: 

Photo:

You’ll need to include a photo to accompany your profile. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a professional photo, but it should be polished. Ideally, the background will be fairly plain, and you’ll be wearing a nice shirt or blouse. The photo should really just be a headshot, from about shoulder level up, and you should be looking at the camera. This is not the place for a group shot taken with your friends at the beach. Browse through other users’ profiles to see the style of photo most commonly included.

Headline:

Your headline is one sentence or phrase that captures what you’ve done and what you’re interested in doing in the future.

Summary:

Your summary will briefly describe what you’re passionate about doing, what you’re particularly skilled at, and what your goals are. It will basically expand on your headline to offer more specific details.

Experience:

This is essentially a resume of work experience. Include every job you’ve held so far, even if it was only part-time. Later, when you’re older and have amassed more work experience, you will trim down this section to include only jobs that are relevant to your career goals. For now, because you’re just getting started, you should include every job you’ve held.

For each job, include a brief description of your responsibilities and anything that you accomplished while there. You can even include photos or videos of your work if you have them, but keep in mind that these should serve as examples of the quality of work you’re capable of, not a series of selfies you took while serving as the beach parking attendant.

Honors and Awards:

Here, you can list any formal recognition you’ve received both in and out of school, from Employee of the Month at the local ice cream stand to National Merit Scholarship recipient. Don’t be afraid to brag in this section.

Projects:

This section should include any projects that you’ve worked on, in or out of school, in which you took a leadership role or otherwise excelled. For example, you could include your role as group leader in your school’s model bridge building competition even if your team didn’t win, or the darkroom that you built in your parent’s basement. This is the place to highlight unique achievements that were not formally recognized and do not fall into work or volunteer experiences.

Courses:

Don’t list every high school course you’ve ever taken here. Instead, focus on ones that highlight your skills and interests. For example, if you are interested in a career in computer tech, definitely include the coding course you took online or the AP Computer Science course you took at school.

Skills And Expertise:

Choose at least five skills that are relevant to both what you enjoy doing and the field you intend to pursue professionally. The people you connect with through LinkedIn will be able to endorse these skills to verify them for others who view your profile.

Organizations:

This is the section in which you list clubs or extracurriculars. Be sure to also include a brief description of what you did in each organization, especially if you took a leadership role.

Volunteer Experience:

Here, you’ll list any service projects or other volunteer work in which you’ve participated. Again, include a description of each experience. Even if you haven’t done much in terms of volunteer work, you can include any work for which you weren’t paid or compensated in this section, even if it was informal, like tutoring a younger student from your basketball team.

Education:

This section will usually start with your high school, but for older professionals it may not even start until college. You can include your high school classes and any summer programs or courses that you’ve taken outside of school.

Recommendations:

In this section, you can post recommendations that you’ve gathered from employers, teachers, or classmates. This section adds credibility to your profile. Never leave a job or a class in which you excelled and connected with the teacher without asking for a brief recommendation. You never know when it will come in handy.

Create A Customized Url:

When you open your LinkedIn account, you’ll be assigned a random web address for your LinkedIn profile. This will usually include a long line of numbers or random letters. You can customize the URL using these directions from the LinkedIn website.

Customizing your LinkedIn URL makes your profile easier to find and appears more polished and professional. It also shows that you have some technological savvy and pay attention to details.  

Now I know these aren’t all the things that you can do on LinkedIn but if you just these, you will have a markedly competitive edge over the rest of the applicant pool. Do consider this and come chat with us if you have any more questions. 

Why you should have a LinkedIn Account

College application season is upon us, and as you scramble for recommendation letters and put the finishing touches on your college essays, you might not think about one application component that could make all the difference: a LinkedIn profile. The Common App does not require a student-submitted resume, so including a link to your LinkedIn profile in the "additional information" section could make all the difference.

Optically, the fact that you have a LinkedIn profile could set you apart from other applicants. According to Forbes, "Having a LinkedIn profile tells a potential new boss that you are serious about building a career, rather than just socializing online."

There are also legitimate career benefits. "If you know what field or company you want to work in, you can instantly search your connections for a link to a specific company, institution or field," Forbes reports. You could connect with alumni of your high school working in your desired field, and set up informational phone conversations.

Strategies for Using LinkedIn As a High School Student

Once you have your profile completed, you can begin using LinkedIn to establish a professional online presence. It might seem a little confusing at first, especially if you are the only one amongst your friends using this platform, but with a little practice and observation you’ll be up and running in no time.

Here are some tips to get started:

Pursue Networking

If you meet important professionals at a school event, through your parents or friends, or through a summer job, follow up soon afterwards with an invitation to connect on LinkedIn. Make sure to do so while you’re still fresh in this person’s mind. If you’re worried that they won’t remember you, include a brief message saying that it was pleasure to meet them at this specific event.

You should also reach out to successful alums from your high school, whether you knew them personally or not. This is particularly important if they’re in a field that you intend to pursue. Connecting through LinkedIn at a young age shows ambition, and lets others know that you’re thinking about your future career.

Don’t Overshare

LinkedIn is a unique social media platform. Spend some time observing the feed before you begin to share material. Content shared on LinkedIn is distinctly different from Facebook or other social media platforms. Keep it minimal and professionally relevant.

Know What To Brag About

You should definitely describe your accomplishments and awards, giving details about each. After all, you are actively trying to market yourself. Don’t include your grades, GPA, or test scores, though. These can come off as superficial achievements, since professionals are more interested in what you DO with your talents and knowledge than whether you have them in the first place.

Don’t Lie

This should go without saying, but as on your college, job, or scholarship applications, you should never lie or embellish the truth. Something that starts as a small embellishment could really catch up to you professionally in the future if it plays a role in you getting a job. Don’t put yourself in that position.

Create A Customized Url

When you open your LinkedIn account, you’ll be assigned a random web address for your LinkedIn profile. This will usually include a long line of numbers or random letters. You can customize the URL using these directions from the LinkedIn website.

Customizing your LinkedIn URL makes your profile easier to find and appears more polished and professional. It also shows that you have some technological savvy and pay attention to details.  We hope this helps and will follow up with some best practices for LinkedIn. Come chat with us and learn how to go through this application process!

Will Admissions Counselors Look at your Social Media?

If you’re like most teens, you probably use social media on a daily basis. In fact, according to Facebook Insights there are more than 400 million active Facebook users in India, most of which check their platforms daily. As more and more of your personal information becomes present on online platforms, such as social media, you may be wondering if you should be worried about how colleges might perceive your online presence.

Your worry is not unfounded, as made evident by the 2017 revocation of a dozen Harvard acceptances after students were reported for making offensive jokes on a social media platform. Still, you may wonder to what extent exactly you should worry about your social media accounts being scrutinized by college admissions committees. Are they checking every account? Will they pour over every picture?

Luckily, this is no longer a mystery. In the 2017 Survey of College and University Admissions Directors, admissions representatives from around the country openly discussed their approaches to social media and their beliefs about whether or not your accounts should bear weight in the college application process. To learn more about how much your social media accounts are reviewed by college admissions committees, read on.

What Does This Mean For Your Social Media Use?

Since there is no complete consensus about social media use, you can’t really rely on any specific school to check or turn a blind eye to your social media presence. Instead, you should be aware that some colleges can and do check your social media accounts. Even if these colleges are in the minority, you should be prepared for the possibility that social media accounts may be checked, and that it’s always possible that someone could report any egregious social media use to an admissions committee.

You should also keep in mind that nothing online is truly private. Even if you think that you have your accounts locked down with restrictive privacy settings, there is always the chance that someone could screenshot your account and post it elsewhere.

Ultimately, you need to use your own good judgment about what you post online. Think of your social media accounts as a reflection of who you are, not just as a student and college applicant, but also as a person. Take some time to go through your past posts and clean them up, if necessary. You may not be able to completely scrub them from the the annals of Internet history, but you can at least ensure that they are no longer front and center on your current accounts.

Finally, remember that you don’t have total control over your own social media presence; the company you keep is important too. Friends and acquaintances can often tag you in posts or comment on material that you’ve posted. Consider limiting access to your content if you have contacts who habitually post unflattering or questionable content

Use Social Media to Your Advantage

Social media doesn’t need to have negative connotations. There are plenty of ways to leverage social media to your advantage, using it to polish your online presence and to connect with colleges and employers.

One way to leverage social media to your advantage is by using it to showcase your unique talents and passions. Choose a platform that aligns with your talents and goals, and then polish your account to reflect well on them. For example, if you’re into creative visual arts, you might create an Instagram account or YouTube channel dedicated to highlighting your work in this area.

Finally, LinkedIn is a great way to network, both academically and professionally. By creating a LinkedIn profile while you’re still in high school, you begin to lay the foundation for important connections and an established, professional online presence. Connect with college advisors, admissions representatives, and department heads to get the inside scoop at colleges on your list.

We’ll write a blog on how to use LinkedIn soon!  

We hope this essay helped! College application season is now and come chat with us for all your admissions needs!