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.

Support me by sharing this post:

There’s a strange chilling effect with social media users these days. With so many people looking for work, no one wants to write or post anything that might hurt their chances at their next interview. Not posting pictures of your last sushi night out with your friends, where you did all those saké bombers and wound up in the street in your underwear pretending to be a bullfighter and swinging your pants at oncoming traffic… that’s definitely something no hiring manager wants to see.

What about something more innocent? Should you write about your political beliefs? Music you hate? Post pictures of your last hunting trip, or a vacation video taken of you in a bathing suit?

What is the line between something that could be bad for you, and simply sharing something from your life?

Know the Line

Rather than simply being paranoid and not posting anything, think about whether or not what you are going to say or show is really negative. Is it anything that falls into this quick list:

1. Hate speech
2. Showing drug use
3. Commission of any other crimes
4. Nudity
5. Egregious swearing

Not surprisingly, these are the big ones that you should always avoid posting publicly. The easy rule of thumb here is keep your social media life as PG-13 as possible. The first four are painfully obvious, but perhaps number 5 isn’t.

If you are always swearing when you post, this not only gives the impression that you may speak this way normally, but that you aren’t smart enough to come up with other words on your own. (And if you knew what “egregious” meant, this probably isn’t the case.)

If you do post this kind of content on your social network profiles, by all means hide them – don’t use your real name, and DO NOT share them in places where an employer will read them. Most people are finally aware of how much damage sharing information like this about themselves in public can be for them, so if this is at all true for you, just detach yourself from these profiles before you even submit that next resume.

The Troublesome Subtleties

Well that’s easy enough not to do – but what about political opinions, or even opinions about the industry you work in?

For the most part, you should never have to censor your real beliefs on these subjects. The first is that if everything you post is edited and sanitized, you won’t have any more fun. The reason for that Facebook or Twitter account is to share something about you. The fact of the matter is, if you don’t get an interview because of an honest opinion, you don’t want to be working at that company anyway. If your honest opinions really are in conflict with the culture of the company you are applying to, it really is for the best if you don’t get the call – not just for them, but for you as well.

Also, your opinions on your industry, while they may not be what everyone else says, shows that you have an intuitive understanding of the subject matter, and can come up with outside-the-box analysis. If the general consensus is that Home Loan A is a great product, and you can share reasons why it isn’t, the right hiring manager can learn that you not only know about the home loan industry, but that you can think for yourself. If the company does not want employees who can think beyond what they’re told about a product, you probably don’t want to work there either. Generally speaking, the ability to think independently is considered a virtue, and can actually help you.

Frequency

Oddly enough, while so many are worried about what they post, there isn’t the same kind of warning about how often you post. It can definitely work against you if you are posting to Twitter and Facebook and Linkedin twice an hour all day. If you are unemployed and have oodles of free time on your hands, you might be doing just that.

What a hiring manager sees, however, is someone addicted to social networking. They may conclude that, if hired, you will spend an inordinate amount of time continuing to post messages and photos and comments.

What Kind of Company Do You Want to Work For?

Don’t think I’m being insensitive when I suggest you don’t want to work for a company that doesn’t want you. We are definitely in an employer’s job market these days, and there are many candidates for them to choose from. Dealing with pleasing potential employers by not posting anything at all, however, can hurt more than help.

I have always maintained that if you are worried about what you do on line coming back to haunt you, you should distance your real life from your social networks. If it is too late for that, consider keeping two kinds of profiles – the fun one that cannot come back to you, and the professional one that you don’t mind employers seeing.

This issue ultimately comes down to controlling what others can learn about you. Given the amount of use social networks receive, it’s rather like learning that employers are listening in on your phone conversations too – so watch what you say.

The difference is that phone conversations really are private, and what you do on social media is not only public, but everyone knows that it’s public. Anything you are ashamed to share shouldn’t be shared – but anything else you should simply be prepared to stand by, and possibly even defend.

Your social networking footprint is a representation of who you are, and the best way for hiring managers to get to know you before an interview. While it is smart to hide the embarrassing stuff, don’t be ashamed to show people the rest.

Eric Reid is an Internet marketer from Tempe, Arizona, specializing in SEO and social media marketing. Currently he writes the blog Ciao Enrico, which is also his nom de plume on Twitter and many other social media sites. He recently took the best driver’s license photo anyone has ever seen.

Support me by sharing this post:

Last week we held our first major marketing event where we took Professional Headshot of college students. It was held in the Ballentine Center in the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University.  For everyone who couldn’t make it, let me try and describe the atmosphere for you. The room is about 1500sq ft with three 100inch projector screens, thirty computers and a giant class window that looks out onto the building Atrium so that everyone could see what was going on. One of projectors was running Guitar Hero: World Tour, which was a big hit, while the others had instructions on them. Besides the three founders running the event, we had lots of other students roaming the halls bringing people into the event, if the fliers we posted didn’t catch their eye.

As we have mentioned untold amounts of times in the past, you need to create a consistent image online, and a professional headshot of yourself is the best way to start doing that. The headshot was free for anyone who came and signed up for a free account, which many did. On top of getting a professional headshot and signing up for our online reputation management system, it was also a great networking event as well, to meet and talk to all the other proactive students.

Unfortunately due to time constraints we where only able to take a few hundred headshots but because of the success of this event and the overwhelming popularity of it, we will be holding it again at Syracuse University in another location. We partnered with the Syracuse’s career services and was able to get an email sent out to every undergraduate, all 12,000 students who comprise the students of tomorrow.  Our goal is to set this up at every school, to give every student an opportunity to start creating their personal brand and establishing their online presence.

Keep an eye out and an ear open for our next event which could be held at a school near you!

Support me by sharing this post: