Update Your Profile to Match Facebook Changes

Do you remember back in grade school, when you had fire drills and got to miss a precious few minutes of class? It was always followed by the teacher explaining that we should test the smoke detectors at home and replace the batteries whenever we changed the clocks. Good advice to this day, but the times, they are a-changing. And I’ve got another tip for you: update your Facebook profile settings.

Facebook doesn’t quite follow the predictable pattern of daylight savings time, but they do update their platform several times throughout the year. And when they do, it’s a good time to check your settings and update your profile accordingly. And I’m not just talking about removing cancelled TV shows from your profile. Take a good long look at your friends, apps and security settings to make sure you are still sharing the information you want to be sharing.

Sometimes Facebook clearly states their recent changes. But their end goal is to provide maximum targeting capabilities to advertisers. So you should always double-check that your settings are actually your own, and haven’t been defaulted back to Facebook’s more open preferences. Set your email preferences to receive notifications that are helpful to you, without always logging in, and don’t be afraid to purge old friends or deactivate unused apps. It’s amazing how many dusty promotional apps I found still attached to my profile when I took a look.

Think of it as spring cleaning for your account. And instead of freaking out about more Facebook changes, use the announcement as a reminder to keep your profile within your control.

How to Get Started With a Job In Social Media

Social Media is a relatively new facet of marketing. Actual jobs in the industry are an even newer concept. And so for many people planning their social media career path, it can be hard to figure out where to put your foot in the door. My (admittedly twisty) road is by no means a recipe for guaranteed success or a checklist of must-haves for a social media career. But I thought it might help to share with people how I got here.

The short answer? A little luck. A dash of patience. Employers who were willing to test stuff out. A solid marketing and writing background. And a lot of tasks outside my official job description.

A Strong Marketing Background

I started out an advertising major and graduated from Boston University with a Bachelor’s degree in Communications, where I concentrated on copywriting. At the time, this was largely focused on print. Facebook was just poking and photo posting, and Twitter was still an idea being hatched on a cocktail napkin somewhere. And while writing ad copy for fictitious print campaigns is not quite the same as social posts, I did learn a lot about writing. (The attention grabbing, to-the-point necessities of a headline also apply to Twitter.)