Commercial Awareness
Using social media to become commercially aware
Billy Sexton
Last updated 12th November 2019
Commercial awareness is a buzzword you’re going to hear all the time when you’re applying for vacation schemes and training contracts. In order to be successful in your applications, you need to display a high degree of commercial awareness.
How social media can improve your commercial awareness
We’ve already provided some tips on how to improve commercial awareness and asked a graduate recruiter what firms expect when it comes to commercial awareness. But we understand that many students would rather spend their time on social media than poring over the Financial Times. The good news is that social media can be an excellent tool to improve your commercial awareness.
It’s very easy to use Facebook to become commercially aware. News outlets such as the Financial Times, The Telegraph and The Times have their own Facebook pages that you can like and follow on your news feed. You could take five or ten minutes out of your social media scroll to read an article that will help you become more commercially aware.
However, these news outlets—and many others you might want to read—have put up paywalls. If you want to have access to their content, you could divide the cost of a subscription between your friends to make it cheaper.
You should also like law firms you’re interested in working for. They’ll post updates and tips on how to make your application stand out. Other pages you could like include AllAboutLaw.co.uk for bespoke tips, careers advice and news about the industry.
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Using Twitter to become commercially aware is very similar to using Facebook. Follow the pages and news outlets mentioned above, or any others that interest you. You should also follow The Law Society and the Solicitors Regulation Authority and keep up to date with the firms you want to apply to.
If you’re scrolling through Twitter and spot an article you’d like to read but you don’t have the time, you can favourite that tweet and come back to it later.
First things first, if you don’t have a LinkedIn account already, it’s important that you set one up soon!
LinkedIn is a professional social media platform that acts as your online CV. On LinkedIn you can follow a range of law firms and stay updated on their activity. You can even check out the profiles of people who already work at a specific law firm to get a taste of their educational and professional background.
Be careful though: when you view someone’s profile on LinkedIn, they get a notification saying that you’ve done so. It’s best to make sure your LinkedIn profile is optimised for law recruiters, just in case they decide to check out your profile too.
Social media can be a great tool to help you improve your commercial awareness, but it should form part of your effort to make yourself the ideal candidate for vacation schemes and training contracts—make sure you’re using it in a way that is beneficial to your future career!
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