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Social media continues to have great importance in everyday living. It is used as a means of communication for families, friends, and peers. Colleges and Businesses recognize this, which is why they are starting to seek out individuals whom can excel in social media.
University of Iowa has gotten wide praise for removing its requirement for students to submit a second essay. Instead, they want the prospective students to submit a Tweet explaining why they want to go to college. Tweeting is baked into our everyday lives, and the better we are at it the more successful we can be. Remember, Tweeting well requires a lot of creativity and smarts as there are only 140 characters to work with. So by reviewing Tweets from applicants, colleges can learn a lot about the individual.
One of the problems with today’s world is that there is too many distractions. Smartphones, Ipads, 24 hour news all can make it difficult for us to spend the time we need to on other important things. That is why it is important that we learn how to better get to the point. 20 years ago, we may have had 5 minutes to tell a story, today we may only have 20 seconds. This is where Tweeting comes into play – because it teaches us to get to the point. And in today’s business world, getting to the point is crucial, so those can demonstrate a good ability to Tweet could attract interest from companies and colleges alike.
Of course experience on Facebook and Twitter are important as well – as it demonstrates an interest and expertise in social media. So when setting up an interview, if you can not only show your social media interest but demonstrate the success you have had with it – you are going to give yourself a leg up on the competition. It is important that you take pride in your Twitter and Facebook posts as these very well could be read by future employers.
Lastly, one little talked about advantage of social networking is that it fosters creativity. In the past so much of what we learned was in textbooks and everyone know the right and wrong answer. Social media is not like that – as there is no right answer or pre-determined way to Tweet or Post updates to Facebook. It is about creativity as you have to come up with the right thing to say within the character constraints offered to you. Social Media not only fosters creativity but it rewards those who excel at it.
In closing, for all of those who said social networking was a waste of time – we beg to differ. Colleges and Companies want students with an interest in where technology and the web is headed, and social media is clearly at the forefront of the future. So, the next time you hop on Twitter to send out a 140 character message, realize that composing Tweets is actually a pretty important part of your day.
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