At dinner a while back I sat next to a very smart professional person who is a friend but not one that I’ve spent a great deal of time with. We got onto the ‘do you/don’t you’ discussion re social media as the night wore on and it turns out that they use no social media tools at all. The actual fear of the tools was huge and the negative things that ‘could’ or ‘might’ happen rolled off their tongue as easily as a shopping list.

I understand and appreciate social media isn’t for everyone and there are also professions where communication of what’s going on in your life, work-wise or otherwise, can be misinterpreted – my friend is a doctor, for example. But there is still a stigma around using the web for things like personal branding and sharing interesting articles using social media and I find this a problem.

Our lives today are very different to the way they were in previous decades and the lives of those in Generation Y will be different by even greater degrees year-on-year from here on in. The way we communicate is different. The way we work is different, too. It does seem that many in my age group (40+) ‘want things they way they were’ but are also very quick to whip out their smartphone and send emails from anywhere when it seems like the right thing to do.

I think it’s even more important to cement your own personal brand online now, no matter who you are and what you do. Embrace technology rather than just knowing about it or trying it out to see if you like it. You don’t need to become so hell-bent on self-promotion that you dilute the quality of your own story, but you have a story and you have the means and power to get it out there in the digital world of today. Your personal circumstances could change in a flash (as they have for many over the last few years of financial turmoil) and the time you need to start to promote yourself could be closer than you can even imagine right now. If you’re also in the market for a new job and you’re ‘digitally invisible’, you are missing out on opportunities and this is a situation that’s easily avoidable.

Those of all ages and backgrounds that I meet that don’t have any kind of social media presence are now standing out as the minority. Most have made a move or are at least taking a watching brief before launching their own new profiles. The tabloid press will always push out horror stories of those who have suffered/caused loss or damage as a result of a facebook post or misguided tweet but no system is perfect and common sense has to always be applied. Please, don’t fall for the negative hype and get yourself moving. Create a profile or two, start following your friends and let us all know who you are.