How social media can (hopefully!) help you get ahead in your career.

pic from thedrum.co.uk

A few years ago when we all started signing up for sites like Bebo and MySpace, few could predict how big social media would become and quite how great the potential was for development into much more than a way of keeping in touch with friends. Anyone who knows me won't deny that I am a social media addict, and without setting out to do so, I seem to have found ways of using it to (hopefully!) help me work out my future career path.

Twitter

When I first got Twitter three years ago, most of the people I started following were journalists, PR agencies and those who work in television, mainly because I was desperate to get an insight into their industries. Sure, Twitter's great for a spot of celeb stalking, but I would also recommend following professional people with jobs you're interested in. They're easy enough to find. For example, try searching "ITV presenter" into the Twitter search box and you'll be spoilt for choice by the interesting people that pop up as results.

It's worthwhile contacting people you admire. Last year when I found out that my half term in February coincided with London Fashion Week, there was no way I was going to let the opportunity to experience it pass me by, so I tweeted Cosmo's fashion director, Shelly Vella (@shellyvella), and after further communication I ended up working with Cosmo's fashion team and sitting alongside them at goodness knows how many fashion shows and exhibitions (read all about it here!) Marios Schwab anyone? It. Was. Awesome. I learnt so much and it was so kind of the Cosmo ladies to have me along. All because of a tweet. Similarly, my recent work experience at ITV News all came about originally through a tweet to one of their producers. When I was finally there, ITV News' top editor, Deborah Turness, told me she admired my initiative, which was very flattering.

Facebook

One of the interesting developments in Facebook over the past few years has been the explosion of companies and brands with their own pages. I "like" a fair few, and my work experience last year at more! magazine came about after there was a post on their Facebook page saying they were looking for workies in their fashion department...

Instagram

...Then when I was working at more!, one of their senior ladies, the lovely Alison Perry (@iamalisonperry), noticed the instagram pictures I was posting of my experiences behind the scenes at more!, and she then asked me to start up their interns' blog, which was highly exciting. I did four blog posts for them, which are all up on my blog. Here's a link to the first one!

Blogs

Any of my millions of dedicated blog readers will know that back in June I was lucky enough to have won tickets to the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace (read all about it here!) and that I was also interviewed about it on SKY News (here's the blog about that!), which was great, particularly for someone so interested in broadcast journalism. "How had that come about?" I hear you ask. Well, one of SKY News' producers had searched on Twitter for tweets about the concert, found mine and my excited blog posts about it, and then asked me if I'd like to be interviewed - obvs I did. Simples!

So as you can see I probably spend far too much of my free time on social media - this obsession probably began when I did a stint of work experience in the social media department of the fabulous online company, Tamar (@TamarUK). And as a result of all this, I now have a part time job as a social media intern for the incredibly exciting new company, SecondSync (@SecondSync) and have also got a job as a web editor for my uni paper next year. Exciting times all round!

Social media is definitely the place to be at the moment, but who knows how long it will last. The question is: What's coming next..?