These five bloggers all have something important to say about the pros and cons of employers using Facebook: 

1. The Facebook Snatchers: Could Your Employer Hijack Your Account? by Andrew Moshniria, The Citizen Media Law Project
Moshniria posts about the city of Bozeman, Montana’s failed attempt to get all its employees’ social networking usernames and passwords. The city had to change its policy on internet privacy because overt spying on employees goes against Montana’s state constitution. But, Moshnira points out, the US Constitution does not provide for a right to privacy, so other employers may try imposing similar rules. 

2. What If a Prospective Employer Doesn’t Look at My Facebook Page? by Mike Dover, Creative Class
Dover takes an optimistic approach to the subject of employers on Facebook. Dover suggests that since we know people have lost opportunities because of inappropriate online behavior, why not use Facebook to help your career, instead of as a place to let it all hang out? Thoughtful posts and relevant link sharing add to your credibility and allow you to show people what you are like instead of trying to describe yourself on a cliche-riddled resume.
3. More Employers Use Social Networks to Check Out Applicants by Jenna Wortham, The New York Times
Jenna Wortham’s post advises us to accept the fact that employers are going to try to look at your Facebook page. Besides the obvious drinking references and provocative photos, you may be harming your career by posting seemingly harmless pictures of your beach vacation or a controversial Halloween costume. She suggests that it’s best to keep your privacy settings very tight.
4. Use Facebook Ads to Make Employers Hunt You Down by Willy Franzen, One Day One  Job
Willy Franzen of One Day One Job challenged his blog’s readers to make Facebook ads to advertise themselves to employers! Although placing an ad is not free, Franzen says that the ads are inexpensive and the cost is worthwhile given the potentially wide reach.
5. Ten Ways to Use Facebook to Find a Job, The Sirona Says Blog
Blogger and HR consultant Andy gives us more than enough reasons to believe that employers and Facebook are a good combination. My favorite of his tips is “don’t be boring,” although making sure your profile photo is you “in a non-stupid pose” is a close second. His light hearted approach reminds us that the right job should make the best use of your abilities, so shouldn’t your job search do so as well? 

The internet and its social networks continue to present us with new challenges regarding our online behavior and how it relates to our professional lives. The only thing certain is that technology probably won’t be regressing; however, we can learn how to protect our professional lives from being intruded upon by our social lives. Best of all, we can use social networking to improve our careers if we can find a way to make our unique online personas set us apart from all the other job seekers in our fields.

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This weekend I engaged in a discussion at LinkedIn Answers about Personal Branding & Corporate Branding, discussing the different aspects of how personal brands and corporate brands can work together and against each other. Since this is a complex question which you may not have given much thought to, I thought that I’d share my ideas with you.

How corporate and personal brands empower or diminished each other

Competence

For the corporation, strong personal brands among the staff show the competences and strengths of the employees as well as the fact that they are interested and engaged in their line of work. For the personal brand it is great to have a network of strong brands around yourself and also to be connected to a strong corporate brand in your line of work.

On the other hand, if the company has weak competence, that brand will be hurt by the fact that the employees are not as sharp as expected. Also if some event (think Enron) happens, that will also have an impact on the personal brand of the staff, whether they have anything to do with what destroyed the corporate brand or not.

Inventory of resources in the company – working with your passion

If you are working in a place where the company cares about its brand and about the personal brands of the employees, it will be easier to find the right competence within the organization instead of using consultants for unnecessary tasks. (I believe in consultants, but they should be used in the proper manner.) This will give the employee a better chance of doing the things they are passionate about (as they have branded themselves) and will in the long run strengthen the corporate brand since it will be a better place to work at and hence attract better employees.

If there are weak personal brands in the organization, it will attract weak and unmotivated co-workers, which will have a negative impact on both brands.

Customer care / receptionist / salespeople

These are areas within the company where every client (hopefully) meets an actual human being. The way this person communicates will have a immense impact on whether or not the client feels happy. The brand of the person interacting with the client is carrying two brands, that of the company and that of himself. Both brands will be affected in either a positive or a negative direction depending on the associations that the client gets.

Conclusion

Both the company and the employees have everything to gain from working with their brands, and also thinking of how they can empower each other’s brands and the brands they are associated with in different networks or contexts. I believe that an increased brand awareness throughout the corporation will also benefit the corporate brand as well as make the employees more motivated to add to the corporate brand as well as start working on their own brands.

Have any of you faced situations in which the corporate brand and the personal brand have empowered or worked against each other?  How did you benefit from it (if positive), or deal with it (if negative)?

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I’m excited to announce that our new Online Reputation Management Platform is ready for the public. In honor of all of your support and loyal readership, we are giving away 100 full access, premium accounts. And who is our system for? Everybody! Job applicants, consultants, small business owners, entrepreneurs, actors, professional service providers, authors – anybody whose web presence matters.

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Throughout the process we’ve built some cool tools. Our Google Results Organizer is a fun way to discover how people perceive you when they Google you. You identify which results are about you and which are not by clicking and dragging results into appropriate columns. Our search engine optimization tools in the next section will then help you raise relevant results up above negative or irrelevant results.

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Creating favorable content is not enough. The optimize section empowers you to choose which content shows up at the top of Google over negative content, irrelevant content and other peoples’ results.

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Being found when people are searching for you is an excellent reactive approach. In the Promote section, we help you proactively promote your content to the right people in the right places. We help you do this via social media by serving you daily recommendations of what to do next, and who to connect with to build your brand’s network.

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I have a major pet peeve and it’s probably high on your list as well.  You know exactly what I am talking about; it’s those people that you follow that bad mouth and trash talk about their company or manager or co-workers… and it is almost always during the business day and they are probably using company computers to post the message!  How does this reflect on you and your personal brand?

If you would like to see how much this is discussed, just do a Twitter search for #ihatemyjob and see all the messages that pop up.  The results are astounding., considering that not all of the whiners even put the #ihatemyjob hash into their messages about work.  But if you follow your stream at any time during the day, you are bound to see one or two (or more!) tweets sharing something negative about their day and the people involved.  Seriously?

I don’t care if you have a “private” Twitter account or not.  As a recruiter there is nothing worse than seeing a tweet with a negative message about your employer, manager or coworker.  Below are just a few helpful reminders as to what not to do and what you should do on Twitter for your personal brand:

Don’t: Tweet anything negative about your job, manager or coworkers.

Do: If you are not happy, do a Twitter search for #jobs and another hashtag that is in the field you are looking (#marketing #finance #accounting #sales #java #helpdesk just to name a few).

Don’t: Tweet anything negative during the workday, from either your work computer or your mobile device.

Do: Keep your messages during business hours conversational and engage on a topic of value to your followers

Don’t: Pretend to be something you are not.

Do: Be yourself, simple and sweet! Whatever your passion, this is the best way to tweet and add your own authentic value.  If you are a complainer by nature, maybe Twitter isn’t the best outlet for you (think about it).

Here’s a rule which you hopefully have picked up from this blog already: Don’t post something online, under your own name or pseudonym, that you wouldn’t feel comfortable saying in an interview.  Because odds are, your interviewer will find what you say online, and you will be held accountable for it.

It may seem simple and common sense, but it is something important to remember and definitely the best recommendation you will receive for what you put online and how you work to manage your personal brand.

—-

Keith McIlvaine is a Social Media Strategist within HR and Recruiting for a Fortune 500 company.  When he is not focused on leveraging social media and networking, Keith is also a personal branding coach and social media mentor.  He is passionate about his family and is a major soccer fanatic.  Connect with Keith on Twitter and LinkedIn.  The statements I have posted on this site are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.

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