Social Media Presence – Impact on your candidature

Are you aware of how critical your social media presence is in enhancing your candidature for college applications?

Your offline presence may be fabulous. However, in a world that is connected 24×7, what you do online matters tremendously. However, applicants believe that furnishing a strong application and doing well in the admissions interview is all it takes to get your dream school admit.

Not true anymore!

Information that you share in the digital universe gets recorded and captured permanently. Increasingly, your classmates, schools, and even employers are turning to social media to understand the validity and strength of your application by tracking what you share and how you interact online —basically your social media presence. It can help you enhance your story and make your application credible. If used well, these platforms are an excellent tool to impress the admissions committee.

To reinforce the paramount importance of social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube) presence, Sarah Ramsey, Director of Recruitment and Admissions for University of California Irvine’s full-time MBA program said, “A lot of schools are on social media now, so it’s a great way to foster interaction and engagement and connect with schools to make an impression and let yourself be known,” Ramsey said. “It’s important for applicants to be self-aware and understand how their brand is represented — i.e. what types of Twitter updates are they sending? How would that sound to an admissions committee or a company recruiting them?”
Your online reputation matters a lot; be social media savvy!

Top 10 tips to navigate social media and enhance your social media presence with respect to your candidature at a top university:

1) Don’t be reckless – Sharing too much personal information, photos of you drunk, fundamentalist opinions on religion and politics are not looked upon favorably by business schools.

2) Google yourself and see what comes up – You want Google to showcase your best attributes and want to ensure your web presence is active and searchable.

3) Use LinkedIn to show a coherent career history – LinkedIn is your online resume. It is rare to have a candidate applying to business schools who doesn’t have a LinkedIn presence. Make sure your hard copy profile and your online avatar are in sync.

4) Ask for relevant recommendations on LinkedIn – Positive feedback from colleagues and supervisors with whom you have shared a strong workplace rapport is looked at favorably.

5) Build a rapport with your target schools – Get on Twitter, follow and engage with the handles of your target schools and their admissions officers.

6) Be courteous and helpful on social media – Retweet or share posts that you endorse or the ones that need public attention. Act as a messenger of all things good.

7) Use social media to express your interests – If dancing is your passion post dance links, images, and other relevant content to grow the community that shares your interest.

8) Be mindful of your privacy. Not everything needs to be public – Your privacy settings on social media tools ensure the content you share remains public, customized or private. Ensure you review your settings periodically to keep your social media presence in your control.

9) Try to be your authentic self – It is important to have your own voice while sharing content. Playing safe by only posting links uploaded by others will prove detrimental to your online presence.

10) Damage Repair – Inappropriate content about you that can be removed from social media, should be deleted as soon as possible. Don’t jeopardize your chances of getting accepted with a tainted social media presence.

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