Day in and day out, social media continues to forever change the way we interact with each other. It plays a significant role in our decisions, the purchases we make, as well as how we access news and information.
Now an integral part of our lives, social media offers us dedicated channels for instant communication, limitless connections, and meaningful collaboration.
What started out in the late 1990’s/early 2000’s as a few online platforms designed to link up real-world friends and family, has rapidly transformed into a phenomenal infrastructure of web-based companies offering users a platform that reaches far beyond a personal level. With companies like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn boasting billions of users each year, social media is just as much, if not more powerful when used professionally.
For court reporters, using social media to expand your horizons and showcase your unique set of skills is easier than ever before. You must take heed and approach social media usage with caution and sensitivity, though, because just as it is your job to take down and officially record the spoken word, social media is doing the same thing. Instead of recording legal proceedings and meetings, social media is creating a record of all the information you share online, a record that is stored forever and searchable by others.
How you use social media can be the difference between committing career suicide or positioning yourself as an invaluable asset to the community, resulting in a thriving career. Whether you are a social media junkie or just getting started creating your online footprint, the tips below will help you reevaluate, strategize, and position yourself for social media success.
The Hearing Aid – Sometimes you just need to sit back, relax, and listen. Being a good listener is vital to any relationship, especially in the relationships you develop online. Listening allows you as a court reporter to gain a better insight into the industry. It allows you to discover new ways to improve your skills while learning from the experiences of others.
The Content King/Queen – With social media, content is king. Creating and publishing content, whether it be articles, status updates, images, or videos, is the ideal way to showcase your skills, build up your creditability as an industry expert, and demonstrate fluency with all things court reporting. The more informational and instructional content you share, the better, as others will find this information and begin connecting with you and asking for advice.
The Two-Way Street – Social media is a two-way street. Participating in a conversation on social media is about engaging with others, treating them with respect and communicating “with” them rather than “at” them. It is a platform for connecting with students, beginning reporters, seasoned reporters, and other industry experts. By interacting with these connections you will build long-lasting relationships, relationships that could result in new opportunities for your career.
The Separation of Personal and Professional – Social media is popular for both personal use and professional use. Whether you should have two accounts separating them is up to you. Before you decide, take some time and think about the following questions:
- Are you comfortable sharing your personal life with your professional colleagues?
- How important are work-life boundaries to you?
- Do you care if your family and friends see your work-related posts, or vice versa, your professional connections see pictures of you at a friend’s birthday party?
- Would you like to be able to post content without offending a professional contact?
One important thing to remember is, just because you might have separate personal and professional accounts, there is still a chance your professional connections can see your personal account. Because of this, it is important to remember the golden rule of social media postings – “If you wouldn’t want your grandma to see what you posted, then you probably shouldn’t post it in the first place.”
The Final Examination – It is important to regularly analyze your presence on social media. Are you being perceived in the way you would like? Are you reaching the goals and objectives you set for yourself when you started out? Everything you create and share online reflects who you are as a court reporter. All information is open for discovery, interpretation, and the feedback of others, whether it be positive, negative, or neutral. Obviously, your goal is to be on the positive end of the feedback spectrum, but if you find yourself on the negative end more often than not, it is time to rethink things and change up your game plan.
Everything you do online builds up your professional brand. When clients, colleagues or potential employers are looking for more information about you, one of the first places they turn to is social media. Do you want to be seen as the unreliable trash talker, or as the highly skilled expert who goes out of their way to support the industry and fellow reporters? It is up to you. How you interact with others and the type of content you post is creating your online story, a story that will be around for years to come. How will your story go?