You Don’t Need a Million Followers to Leverage Social Content and Boost Your Career

Value, in this economy, is everything.

Here is the unfortunate truth: a college degree, while valuable, doesn’t show employers exactly what they want to see from potential talent. A college degree demonstrates competency, yes, but it doesn’t show the value you can bring to an organization.

And value, in this economy, is everything.

Thankfully, there are some great platforms available to help you get visible in your industry and demonstrate your value to the world. Social publishing platforms (LinkedIn, Medium, Twitter and even WordPress) are great places for young talent to publish content about their industry, leverage that content to gain visibility in their industry, and interact with industry leaders.

It takes work, no doubt. But I have seen first hand that you can make some pretty amazing connections and create some incredible professional opportunities through content, even without a million followers or readers.

Unfortunately, I found out how powerful content can be later in my career than I would have liked. If I could go back and talk to my 22-year old self, this is what I would tell him about the importance role content can play in your career.

Is Google Working For or Against You?

Think of your content from the perspective of a hiring manager, recruiter, or talent scout.

Imagine that before you lay two very similar resumes. As part of your due diligence in the hiring process, you (the hiring manager) Google both of the candidates names.

Upon Googling Candidate #1, not much comes up. A locked Facebook account with a selfie as the profile picture, a Twitter account retweeting random pop culture tweets and complaining about the weather, and a somewhat filled out LinkedIn account.

Upon Googling Candidate #2, you find something totally different. Their Medium account pops up, and they have over 25 posts with thoughts about your industry and with other people from the industry commenting on their ideas. Their Linkedin profile is active too, posting and liking industry related content. Their Twitter is also active: you can see they are engaging with industry leaders, posting links to the articles they have written, and being retweeted. You even find them published on other industry sites.

Google your name. What comes up? What is a recruiter or hiring manager going to see?

Between the two candidates, which one are you more interested in bringing in for an interview? Which one do you expect might be able to bring you more value to the position they applied for?

In 2017, being Candidate #2 is a huge advantage. Not only does your employer know far more about you as a person through your content, they also see that you are engaged in and thinking about your industry. The engagement your content receives on social platforms also provides validation for your ideas.

Publishing high-value content online demonstrates an initiative and maturity that would be appealing to any hiring manager. Not to mention helping you get familiar with your industry and the people who occupy it.

But now comes the tough part: What do you write about?

What Do I Write About?

I am just a college student! You might say, no one wants to hear what I have to say! What could I possibly write about!?

You absolutely do have valuable ideas to share, if not just by the sheer fact of your age alone. Industry leaders want to know what young people entering their industry think about the industry. And everyone brings a unique perspective to their industry; there are always new opinions and perspectives to take on industry news and debates.

The key is to find a good niche. Generally speaking, a good niche is broad enough that you could imagine many people being interested in the topic while being narrow enough that you don’t get drowned out by millions of other blogs or publications on the same topic. You can use Google adwords and other SEO tools to help you determine how broad or specific a topic might be, but ultimately what is most important is that you find a topic you are genuinely interested in.

Don’t forget as well that a great source of content is your college courses themselves. For each college course you take, you are writing hundreds of pages on your industry already! Why not turn those ideas into published content that can help you land a job after college?

As a millennial your age alone gives you a unique perspective on industry topics.

I would add: schoolwork itself is similar to a blog in its function as an excuse to reach out to industry leaders. Your assignment is to write about how to handle a specific industry situation? Why not contact local industry leaders and ask them about their experiences with similar situations, throw in a little chit-chat and a little “let’s stay in touch” and you have just made a great connection my friend. Want to take it to the next level? If they are local, ask them if they would be willing to chat over coffee. You would be surprised at people’s willingness to meet with younger people and share their wisdom and experience.

Leveraging Content to Network with Industry Leaders

With some content published on the platform of your choosing (and more on the back burner), it is time to use it to begin leveraging your content.

You want to share your ideas about your industry with professionals and “influencers” in your field, interact with them, ask them questions, and use your content as a reason to reach out to them. I won’t go too deep into the building a rapport process, but to work towards building a rapport with someone, Gary Vaynerchuk’s Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook is about everything you need to know.

Once you build up a rapport with an industry leader, what would leveraging your content look like? As an example, it can look like this:

You are writing a post for your [Medium, Linkedin, blog] related to the industry that you are interested in. You would like to get a quote from Ms. Industry, a well-known leader in the industry. So you reach out to her on Twitter (using your professional Twitter account) and ask her if she would be available for a quote for your post [via email, ReplyAll.me, Skype]. Impressed by your previous posts and your initiative, she happily agrees to chat with you.

Think about what happens in the scenario above. First, your content gains credibility by featuring an industry leader. Second, you make a powerful connection in your industry that now, after talking to you, knows way more about you than a cover letter or resume could ever reveal. And on top of THAT, when you share that post on, say, LinkedIn, they will likely promote it in THEIR network, exposing you to other industry leaders.

Does this guarantee that they themselves are going to offer you a job? No, of course not. But that is why you rinse and repeat. With every connection you make, every conversation you have, you begin to build a higher value network that could yield opportunities you otherwise would have never had access to.

Life With Content

Once you are pushing out content regularly, you will begin to see a few doors of opportunity begin to open. Small at first but each opportunity leading to a slightly more significant one. A blog post here, a little feature in an industry newsletter there, and a few small connections can quickly become blog posts on popular industry blogs and ever more valuable professional connections.

Imagine the confidence you would have to chase opportunities that before may have seemed too far out of reach? Or think of what opportunities might come to you?

That is the best thing about publishing content and becoming visible. You are not hidden away; each morning you could wake up with a cooler opportunity than you ever thought you would have or a message from someone you admire in your field complimenting your work.

And that makes it all worth it.

An earlier version of this article appeared on my blog 12hourdifference.co.

Got a hankering for more? You can read more of my posts on Letters to a Young Professional, you can check out my blog 12HourDifference.co for my thoughts on launching an international career and you can connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter to chat about…whatever you’d like!