In a previous blog post, I revealed ways in which students and teens could gain valuable leadership experience while still in high school. One area we discussed included social media.
In this blog, we’ll examine leadership skills you can pick up using your personal social media accounts and, how social media serves as an excellent space to learn and flex your leadership skills and “muscle.”
Most likely, you’re already on Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter . . . maybe even on YouTube, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. You probably didn’t realize this, but from the very first decision you made about these accounts, you were making leadership moves—such as selecting the name and profile photo you ended up using to “represent” you.
Which brings me to a very important truth . . .
Your social media presence can make or break your image in the eyes of an employer or a college. Really and truly. When managers and admissions teams are vetting you as a candidate, they are considering multiple factors. Understand that they’re not only reviewing your list of accomplishments and GPA, they’re also looking at your social media accounts to get a glimpse into your character. As such, you’ll want to make sure your accounts are devoid of profanity and questionable images.
Understanding how your social media presence can affect your opportunities is a part of any good leader’s prime skill set. That’s because good leaders make it their job to fully grasp the landscape they’re operating in. If you’re “moving and shaking” in the land of social media, you’ll have to know how social media can help and hurt you.
As a result, all these factors should impact how you choose to present yourself on your accounts and help you understand why it’s so crucial to show yourself in the best possible light. That’s exactly why you’ve made a big leadership move already, by creating and managing your accounts! What’s more, you’re being strategic—a huge leadership move—by making decisions like these and taking action toward your identified vision and goals.
Here are three additional leadership moves you can take to ensure that you’re managing your personal accounts optimally:
- Leadership Move #1: Select the best verbiage and images to represent who you are. Good leaders try to ensure that their organizations maintain good reputations, and having a good image helps them prosper. As the “leader” of your social media accounts, you’ll want to make sure they all have good reputations so you’ll prosper as well. If you’re using questionable images and verbiage to put the word out about yourself, you’ve made a poor leadership move that you can reverse today.
- Leadership Move #2: Keep the peace. Good leaders try to ensure healthy, happy environments. The same goes for good leaders in social media. They maintain decorum by moderating posts to prevent people from bullying followers and friends. As a good leader, you’ll want to check your accounts every day and make sure that everyone is being treated well. If you see that someone is bullying others on your page, you’ll have to make a leadership decision about how to handle that. Your options may mean unfriending the individual or otherwise finding ways to prevent them from posting hurtful content in the future.
- Leadership Move #3: Convert your social media leadership into a job or internship opportunity. Managing your own social media pages can help you practice skills that may apply well to prospective job or internship opportunities. A good place to apply these social media skills may be channels that your school or other organizations feature. For example, perhaps your math club has a Facebook page that needs an administrator. They may be looking for someone who could post cool math-related stories, meeting notices, or details on club members winning awards.In addition to posting content, the administrator may also respond to private messages and moderate comments on posts. Being an administrator is a great leadership learning opportunity that you can add to your activities list on your college or job applications. Who knows? You may even find this kind of valuable working experience helps you land a role posting social media content for a business and making money in the process!
As a high schooler, you can tout social media leadership experience on your college and part-time job applications. It’s a skill that can make you stand out in the crowd. So, be sure to research and explore your options beyond what I’ve listed above . . . and here’s to happy leadership learning online!
