How Social Media has Become a Hub for my Portfolio Works

By: Keegan Hartman

I never realized how significant your social media presence/personality was until I arrived at the University of Missouri. However, one of the earliest lessons that drove me to act more mature, specifically on social media, came during my senior of high school. Not getting into specifics on the details, but I was immature towards someone who had not necessarily been on my good side prior. After tweeting what I tweeted, a couple of my older peers and mentors talked some sense into me, advising me that I should be more weary of what I say, especially since I was months away from going to college. It took those conversations to realize that that was not the reputation I wanted to paint myself prior to college. With that in mind, I put those tweets in the past, apologized to the individual those were directed to, deleted those comments, and deleted my, then, Twitter account months later.

This was a hard lesson for me, but I guess I didn’t necessarily know at the time WHO, specifically, was my audience, nor did I understand HOW big my audience was. So when my peers, especially my high school teachers and friends who were older then me, were talking about my little Twitter feud, that’s when I become more aware of self-presentation and my “front-stage” portrayal.

I made sort of a self-pact that, when I arrived to the University of Missouri, that I would utilize my social media platforms in a more positive, mature, and efficient way. Normally, I utilize Instagram and Twitter for a lot of my social media consumption. Not to mention, when I arrived to college, I was determined to network more for the benefit of my future after my education. I took advantage of not only the aforementioned social media networks, but I also wanted to establish a portfolio, and more specifically, a reputation on outlets such as LinkedIn. LinkedIn has played a huge role in my networking since being at Mizzou. Having been involved in some of the Mizzou Student Media organizations, such as KCOU 88.1FM and The Maneater, I have established numerous relationships, as well as shared my work with others involved within those organizations. LinkedIn has allowed me to not only promote my content, such as my sports radio show on KCOU and my photography work, but I have been able to bring on some of the people (who I had little prior knowledge of) on to my show.

With outlets like Instagram and Twitter, my “front-stage” presence has evolved around promoting my portfolio, specifically pertaining to my work within KCOU 88.1FM. A lot of my Instagram and Twitter posts are centered towards my sports opinions, and some posts contain snippets of my weekly podcast. I’ve really gauged my attention on establishing a well-decorated portfolio due to the fact that social media is becoming such a “hub” for businesses/companies to search up job candidates. These past few years at Mizzou have helped me to grow in my social media maturity and have helped me to gain a better understanding for the significance of our social media platforms, along with the power they behold.