Social media is an online campaign

Resumes are no longer the first thing that a journalist will show to a prospective employer. In fact your social media should speak for you and so should any content that you post to a blog or a website if your name or byline goes on it. If you are going to become a journalist your social media accounts should be constructed using the same storyline over and again to share uniform identifying information. Your username should be very close if not exactly like your name. Nicknames are not helpful in identifying you to prospective newspapers or magazines, TV or radio stations. Think about how you would be found in a Google search: will your username come up clearly for your name? If not, you should change your social media. Often a common name will be taken on Twitter. So use initials to replace full names and do not use nicknames, alter egos or false names to create social media accounts. When you become a journalist your work will speak for you so your social media accounts, whether business or personal, must be professional. Take the high road as an aspiring journalist and don’t attack anyone online. Your comments are online forever. No matter what you Tweet, post to Facebook, LinkedIN, YouTube or the thousand or so other social media, your information will be online forever. If you do something you’ll be sorry for, you can lose respect and a potential position as a journalist. Ethically you should be beyond reproach and hold your language usage, your spelling and grammar, punctuation to the highest journalistic standards online. No amount of correction can alter a first impression and if your content is misspelled, language used improperly or grammar incorrect, you lose points and respect. Always use spell check. Carry a grammar and punctuation guide and know the AP or relevant stylebook inside and out. This is not a performance: your social media will speak for you from the day you open your account. Post carefully and conscientiously to all social media.