My Daughter Turned Down a Job Because of the Company's Social Media. Here's Why.

This disgruntled girl is a stock photo and not my daughter. My daughter has her own disgruntled look.

While you might think you're not getting much traffic, the truth is that you have no idea who is looking at your accounts without interacting.

Your social media says a lot about who you are and it's essential to know where you need to focus your energy.

A good example from my own experience was when a financial planning practice hired me to keep their social media active because the advisors - who knew they would want to retire in the next 10 years - wanted to attract younger advisors to join the practice. In other words, it had nothing to do with adding new clients; they wanted impactful branding that would entice people to work with them.

So, let's get back to the title of the blog.

My daughter is a senior in college and is interviewing for possible internships to round out her education. Knowing that she'll be graduating when the semester is finished she wants to make sure she chooses something that at least has the possibility of permanent employment.

She received a text from the CEO of a company, asking her about setting up an interview. Being 21 years old, what does she do next?

Check their social media.

Here's the thing: She wants to make sure she's going into an established business with people who know what they're doing. She's trying to avoid taking a job with a company that has a strong potential of not making it long-term.

So, she looks at their website: it's okay, but not great.

She looks at their Instagram: not a lot of followers.

She gives them the benefit of the doubt and looks at TikTok to see if that's where they're focusing their energy: not much there.

Given that this company is in the entertainment industry, this is concerning to her and already makes her feel like they're not the professional environment she would like. Not only that, but on their website, they say they work in social media marketing...and yet they don't really seem to have a handle on their own.

As she was scrolling through all of these accounts while she was on the phone with me, I thought again about how important it is to make sure you're making the right impression digitally. This company is likely going to miss out on a great employee because they don't SEEM to have it together. They could actually be an amazing company...but that's not the impression they're giving.

How to make sure you digitally look like the company someone is looking for

1. You don't have to be on all social media channels, but make sure to be active on the ones that make sense for your industry. As you saw with my daughter, she was looking at Insta and TikTok because that's where this company SHOULD be. My financial advisors need to be active at least on LinkedIn and possibly Facebook.

2. Be consistent and post useful information.

3. Stay active with comments, etc. so others will comment on your posts as well. In certain industries, followers DO matter. In others, it's more about an intentional network of people who make sense for your business.