Social Media - Your Power Tool
- Leighanne Fernandes
- Sep 5, 2018
- 2 min read
CIU111 - Social Media and Your Career
In the lecture “Social media and your Career”, we learnt how different social media can be used for different purposes in aiding your career. As a media practitioner, using social media in this day and age is a must, while building a decent internet persona. Contacting industry professionals should also allow you to gain exposure and equip yourself with knowledge of your current industry (SAE, 2018).
I have an art account on Instagram where I solely post art and animation related content. CIU111 has taught me that interacting and engaging with my audience helps my account grow (SAE, 2018). This is very true. I had a follower DM me about a recent snippet of my work wherein I posted a poll asking how realistic it looked in comparison to my hand on my story. She was genuinely intrigued in knowing the process, time and materials I used.
Social media can be a powerful tool if you know how to use the right platform for your type of work. Twitter, for example, is used to connect with people around the world using @mentions and trending #hashtags (Devumi, 2018, p.1). It can be used for FAQ’s as well in order to resonate with fans, or even contact celebrities or major industry professionals in real-time.
Instagram is more of a visual timeline used to post pictures and videos of your work. Through constant updates in introducing new features, it has become the hub of social networking among a mass audience (Moreau, 2018, p.1). So you can post snippets of your work or tease your followers about an upcoming event, release, promotion or creative work and add links to any of these in your bio.
Facebook can be used to market your business if done correctly. Here is what some employees say about the benefits of using Facebook (Facebook, 2018).
(Facebook, 2018)
Therefore, social media can either make or break your career depending on how you run it. It is essential to build a good internet persona by knowing what and how to post your content. Different social media allows for different types of engagements and should be used wisely to promote oneself. Hence, using social media is a must.
References:
Devumi (2018). What is Twitter used for, and Why do people Tweet? Retrieved from https://devumi.com/2017/08/what-is-twitter-used-for-and-why-do-people-tweet/
Facebook (2018, February 26). Facebook is the best Place to Work – 2018 Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Awards [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEWr8ENkqSo
Fernandes, L. [@art_ception04]. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/art_ception04/
Keegan, N. (2018, March 8). FOLLOW ME: Who's the most followed person on Instagram? From Selena Gomez to Ariana Grande - here are the most followed accounts [image]. Retrieved from https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/5593805/most-followers-instagram-selena-gomez-ariana-grande/
Marvin, G. (2016, February 10). FAQ: All About How Twitter's "New Improved" Timeline Works [image]. Retrieved from https://marketingland.com/twitter-new-improved-timeline-faq-how-it-works-163622-163622
Moreau, E. (2018, Sepetember 5). What is Instagram, Anyway? Retreieved from https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-instagram-3486316
SAE Creative Institute (2018). Week 3 CIU111 – Social Media and Your career [pptx]. Retrieved from https://moodle-dubai.axis.navitas.com/mod/folder/view.php?id=36542
Also, for animators, there are sites such as Artstation, Behance, YouTube and more that can allow for showcasing and self promotion. It really depends on how comfortable the person is with using any of these and who their target audirnces are.
@r.shrivastava Thank you! Personally, I think that if you do not market yourself properly you will surely not be able to grow on social media. Apart from that, if you use social media incorrectly, for example, not using the benefits of hastaging on twitter or instagram, you won't be able to grow as well. Also, once you start gainig an amount of dedicated followers, it is absolutely necessary to maintain a good relationship with them. So in case if yiu post something which might be sensitive content out of the blues or post something different than your regular posts, you might have to suffer losses.
This very intriguing to learn the benefits of learning how social media platforms could be used to promote yourself. However, how do you think improper use of social media could break your career? and what other sites are there specifically to self promote animators?