I happened to meet a friend from my school days recently. He’s in the finance department of one of the bigger Indian IT companies, in Chennai. He had come to know about my social media/online exploits (ahem!) only recently and this was one of the topics of discussion when we met.
He was referring to work pressures in office (Finance department, I can understand!) and also spoke about how he felt all this ‘social media’ is pointless. His point was simple – if you are good in your job, you’re through.
He was also surprised to see his old friend (me) so vocal and active online. After all, I have been a painfully shy stammerer through most of my school days and even used to dread the prospect of reading out a paragraph in the class!
His question is not new, I have heard many variants of the same and most question the amount of time it takes to work the ‘social media’. If you’re out to share family stories, baby pictures, a 10 minute Facebook regimen later in the evening/night should help you. But that is not what I’m referring to.
Now, why should anyone work their way on Twitter…or LinkedIn? Is it profession/job specific? How does it work for a librarian, for instance? A finance professional? A research assistant?
The point about all this is that social media is not profession-dependent. All it does is two things – one, it helps you identify and reach out to people and second, it helps you put yourself and your profession in perspective.
Why should you identify and reach out to people? Because that is the only way to network, online or offline. Why should you network? Because if you don’t network, you’re pointless in your profession/job.
More importantly, why should you put yourself and your work in perspective? Because that helps you understand who you are, how you are doing and how you can do better. These happen when you network actively online (back to the first point – see the connection?).
My friend was a bit exasperated by this chain of thoughts and seemed unconvinced.
We have always networked actively (at least the smart ones) offline before social media happened. There are offline associations and groups for most professions and the better, smarter ones have always reached out to enhance their knowledge of the kind of work they do and be aware of better opportunities. So, it is strange that people don’t do it even more when things are on a platter, online, compared to the difficult, physical world options.
Every LinkedIn or Facebook status update could be an active networking/connecting hook – if only you want it to be. Every single tweet could add to your reputation in something – if only you want it to. Every comment you post on some blog could get you closer to someone’s thoughts – if only you want to get there.
The key is…if you want it that way. Or, if you see it that way. You can of course fritter your time away in useless, idle chatter online and rue that all this ‘social media’ is pointless. Or, you can assume that you’re engaging online to better your career (mind you, not job…but career). So, you find ways to notice how others in your profession conduct themselves online; what kind of topics do they engage with/engage on? What kind of groups are they part of, online? Who seems to be leading the dicussions in your profession, online? How do they see your profession evolving? What are their opinions? Where do you stand and what are your opinions?
Surprisingly, all these are available freely online, if only you bother to look. The bottomline is, these days it is not enough for a librarian to be just a librarian – he should perhaps be an ‘interesting librarian’. A finance professional needs to be an ‘interesting finance professional’. Notice that I’m not referring to just being better in your work/profession, but using a larger word – ‘interest’ – to go along with your work.
‘Interest’ is across 2 levels – how interesting are you, as a person? And, how interesting are you, as a xyz professional? Both are crucially tied to each other and the simple fact is that social media tools help you learn and project yourself as interesting in both. Again, if only you bother to think of ways to do so.
Living in a cocoon of your cubicle and your job is fine. You wouldn’t know what is happening anywhere else and you’d have a strange sense of contentment too. But, when you know what is happening outside your cubicle, in your profession, you suddenly become aware of the possibilities. You then have a choice – you can make social media work for you. And for that, there are no shortcuts; no instant gratification. You need to use your thoughts as the main investment and work your way up because things are incredibly democratic online. And when you see the kind of networking possible, over and above the superficial layer that people first notice (mainly on Twitter and Facebook), you’d consider the time spent online worth every second!
In a way, you are what you project online. You can choose to be a road-quality-whining, random-question-asking, location-updating bloke. Or, you can be a road-quality-whining, random-question-asking, location-updating, career-updates-seeking, professional-community-engaging and active-thought-sharing-in-your-space bloke. The choice, as always, is yours.
And no, I did not charge my friend for this advice, thought he did throw a joke about it. It comes free for you too, in this blog! This free advice has worked wonders for me, once a painfully shy stammerer. I know that it has worked brilliantly for many people I’m connected to, online and offline. I see no reason why it can’t work for my friend either!
Pic courtesy Juliebee via Flickr.