Your Social Media Needs These 3 Makeovers

By Jamie Hergenrader It’s no surprise that social media has become so important in the world of magazines—reaching a larger audience, enhancing the image of the brand, and even building mini stories within social images, videos, or captions.

As editors, your personal social media pages are also a reflection of a brand—your brand, which can play an important role in your career. It’s the first impression of yourself to editors considering hiring you for a position (you know they look at that). And having a polished, streamlined social presence can help you gain credibility as an expert for your beat, like fitness, health, or relationships.

Steal these tips from Lara Eurdolian, founder of PrettyConnected.com, to up your social game. (Spoiler: it’s about way more than how many followers you’ve got.)

1. Establish a Purpose

“Think about self-branding and the image you want to put out there,” says Eurdolian. If this page is for people you know, like friends and family who want to see what you’re up to, then posting photos of your dog or your boyfriend is totally fine. But if you’re looking to establish yourself as a beauty expert or a food writer, you’ll want your content to reflect.

Even if you don’t have a certain niche, you can still have a signature thing, says Eurdolian. Maybe you’ve got the wit to always have funny captions or maybe you’re the person that always has amazing, high-quality photos. “I’ve seen beautiful photos of anything—shoes, pizza places, skylines, and more,” says Eurdolian.

2. Have a Clear Bio

This step is an important step if you want to gain followers and keep them coming back to your pages. “There have been times when someone shows up in my feed, and I ask myself ‘who are they?’ or ‘why am I following them again?’” says Eurdolian. Writing a clear, concise bio helps clarify the purpose of your page, introduce yourself to potential followers, and also keep people from clicking that unfollow button if they don’t remember who you are.

3. Join a Community

You should be following lots of feeds that you like and ones that are in the same category as yours to get a sense of what’s out there. Eurdolian even screenshots and saves posts she likes to learn more about works and what people want to see.

Beyond following your faves, spend time actually interacting with those people, she says. Like, comment, and repost to make yourself more visible and start conversations to build those relationships.

The content you post also helps you become a part of that community. By paying attention to what your followers want (i.e. which posts get the most engagement) you become a stronger member of, say, the fitness and wellness community.

If you want your followers to be beauty industry peeps, they probably want to see the new products you’ve tried or an awesome event or launch you went to (rather than your family trip to Mexico). And actually, that’s a huge advantage, says Eurdolian. “Magazine editors have exclusive access to such cool events, so you already have unique content that you can show off.” Basically: Use your job or internship to enhance your social media, and your social media to enhance your job.