Understanding How Social Media Could Change Your Career

Being social media savvy is one of the most important career-skills you can develop in 2025. By understanding the positives of social media, how social media affects your career, and how to network using social media, you’ll be in an incredible position to market yourself and your skills to employers.

Social Media Has a Perception Problem

For many young people—and more than a few older people—being a social media star is a dream job all by itself. As such many people think of social media influencers the same way they think of celebrities. Indeed, quite a few social media influencers are celebrities and many more blur the line between celebrity and ordinary member of the public.

The problem with this perception, is that it makes social media feel like a frivolous dream rather than a valuable time investment but that isn’t always the case.

Now, we’re certainly not saying that being popular on instagram is a path to becoming a supreme court judge, but by the same token, you do have a personal brand and social media is the way you put that brand out into the world.

Can Social Media Get You A Job?

Yes, social media absolutely can get you a job. Actually, for many it represents their main method for finding new roles and climbing the career ladder.

For example, if you’ve just headed up a major project in your department, then posting about it on LinkedIn is a great way to show future hiring managers what you do on the day-to-day. When they’re looking for a hardworking person who knows their job inside and out and takes pride in their work, your face may be one of the first things they remember.

Furthermore, it lets you interact with and meet other people working in the same field and if there’s one thing you should never underestimate, it’s the value of networking.

The Social Side of Social Media

Many of us have a basic desire to separate our work lives from our personal ones and this isn’t a bad instinct on its own. After all, the last thing you want is to be bringing the office home with you every night.

On the other hand, this attitude can go too far, particularly when it stops you from developing the meaningful professional connections that can have a powerful influence on your career prospects.

In a career sense, social media is, first and foremost, a networking tool. Using it properly as such can help you meet some fascinating people and even learn more about the job you do.

When people engage with their career online, they have the opportunity to share knowledge with others in their field, learning together and even developing friendships that can span the decades.

How Social Media Affects Your Career

All of this is not to say that social media isn’t without its downsides. Turning away from the positives of social media for a moment, we’d also like to acknowledge the risks of embracing social media as a part of your career strategy. 

When you say something online you never know who’s going to read it. That’s why you should never criticise the company you’re working for, or your coworkers for that matter. In fact, you should be careful when making negative comments in general.

In the heat of the moment, it’s easy to type out comments about how “most CEOs don’t know what they’re doing” and “IT departments never understand the needs of marketing”.

These kinds of generalisations might sound childish but, when your immediate circle are all in the same bubble as you, it can be easy—and even gratifying—to make such statements. It doesn’t matter that they’re neither true nor productive, you’re obviously joking, right?

The problem is that once you put something online it exists forever. This can even be the case when you think you’ve taken something down.

The truth is that you can never be quite certain who’s going to read what you post and when. Ten years from now, when the CEO of an IT company is considering putting you in charge of their marketing department, it would be a real issue if these posts appeared next to your name.

All of this to say that while the positives of social media are undeniable and it can certainly help get you a job, you should always be careful when using it. Avoid negativity in general and, before posting, always ask yourself this: would I say this in a meeting with my boss?