When preparing for career fair season, you will have an endless number of things to worry about. You need to make sure you have your suit ready, resumes printed out and your elevator pitch rehearsed, all while balancing school and your social life.

Through this stressful and confusing time, a lot of people not only forget to check their social media, but also to take advantage of it.

Professors have probably told you by now to try to keep negative images off of your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You should be on the lookout for anything that might seem embarrassing or unprofessional, because future employers might see it while doing a background check on you.

A lot of people also forget about utilizing LinkedIn. Setting up an account is only scratching the surface of what you can do with it. Make sure to list all of your skills, job experience and volunteer work on your profile.

Also try to establish a lot of connections on LinkedIn throughout the year. If you see that you are friends with someone on Facebook but not on LinkedIn, feel free to send them a connection request.

Employers like to see that applicants have a decent amount of connections. It makes them seem like they know how to network and how to establish themselves professionally.

Check your profile picture to make sure that it seems neat and clean. The Career Center will be offering professional headshots for accounts like LinkedIn. Take advantage of getting one while you can because the Career Center does not offer them during the school year.

Look for ways to let your social network see your professional side. As a journalism major, I’ve taken advantage of posting my articles on social media. Whenever one is published online, I like to post a link with a brief description of what the story is about.

Even if you’re not in the College of Media, there are ways to take advantage of all of the hard work you’re doing in school. If you’re part of a professional fraternity or a club that has to do with your major, write something on social media about it or post a picture of it. If one of these groups has an event, make sure to share it and reply that you are going.

Your social media represents the persona you are putting out into the world, which can either be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you present yourself. Even outside of career fair season, it is important to remember this because how you present yourself to the world, both in the real world and on the internet, can drastically impact employers’ opinions of you.

Brooke is a junior in Media.

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