Congratulations you’ve reached 5k followers on Instagram, 1000 Twitter followers and you have more friends on Facebook than you can ever achieve physically in life. But it’s all great because you are social media popular and that is what matters to this shallow young generation I find myself in.
But what did you have to post, write or tweet in order to gain those followers? And how damaging will it be for your future and career?
When applying for a job, all recruiters, agencies and companies will look at your social media and presence online, no matter what industry. The way you represent yourself on your social media matters greatly.
Have you ever googled yourself? This is the first thing that a potential employer will do. And what comes up when you have typed your name into the search engine? Any credible work? Or all your social media profiles?
According to a survey performed by CareerBuilder on employers, 65% of the employers admit to screening potential candidates, by using social media to research on how the candidates represent themselves professionally. In fact, according to the CareerBuilder’s survey 34% of employers stated that while screening candidates they discovered content that forced them to take a decision of not hiring candidates.
About half of those employers said they didn’t offer a job candidate the position because of provocative or inappropriate photos and information posted on his or her profile; while 45% said they chose not to hire someone because of evidence of drinking and/or drug use on his or her social profiles. Other reasons they decided not to offer the job: the candidate’s profile displayed poor communication skills, he or she bad mouthed previous employers, made discriminatory comments related to race, gender, or religion, or lied about qualifications.
Therefore, it’s crucial you have a thorough check on your social network accounts and not solely work on taking down content that can be considered as unprofessional but work on developing a strong social network profile that can work at best of your advantage
The average person has five social media accounts and spends around 1 hour and 40 minutes browsing these networks every day. So the next minute you spend on one of your many social media profiles take a look at what others see, really analyse your content. You must remember if you choose to share content publicly, make sure it’s working to your advantage. One effective piece of advice is, when you next tweet, post, share, tag or like something, is it suitable for your parents or grandparents to see this? Would they be happy with the content?
For the past few weeks, I have seen so much inappropriate content produced and shared by my friends – and it completely baffles me how so many people think it is acceptable to post images of themselves in compromising situations, unacceptable clothing choices (or lack of) and rude offensive opinions.
5 Things your social media profiles should not contain:
1.) Posting photos with alcohol
Even if you are over the aged of 18 and you are innocently having fun, photos of you drinks in hand, eyes blurred, body swaying or even lying in your own vomit can all damage your profile. In 2009, a teacher named Ashley Payne posted a photo on Facebook of her visit to a brewery while she was on holiday. Naturally, she had a glass of wine in her hand. Due to a complaint from a student’s parent, the school suspended her. Steer clear of these photos no matter the situation.
2.) Nudity or body exposing.
There are some exceptions to this – if you are a model, blogger, brand ambassador or within this area of work where posting images of your body in a skimpy bra and pants set then it can be justified. But if you are just an average Joe and you share images of your body virtually naked or in your new ‘CKs’ just for likes and comments you need to seriously reconsider your choices.
How would you feel if your future employer sat across from you in your interview and pulled up your social media profiles and asked you to explain why you think it is appropriate to post this sort of image? Good luck getting out of that hole (or getting that job).
3.) Swearing and use of vulgar or offensive language.
Simply posting “I had a f***ing great day” can say more about your character than your day. I know someone personally who has been struggling for several years to get their dream job and it is all down to their use of swear words and extremely offensive language when they post on statuses. It is just something that companies find totally unacceptable. And if you think you’re safe because you have two separate accounts for twitter – personal and professional it doesn’t make it acceptable for you swear on your personal profile.
4.) Deleted = gone forever. WRONG.
Deleting a comment, photo or post instantly removes it from your profile, but this does not mean it is wiped from the internet. Things can still be found.
5.) Personal opinions of your job.
We all have bad days, or jobs that we don’t like, but writing about it and sharing it with everyone can be a very dangerous area. Just take a look at the tweet one girl wrote left.
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My biggest motto in life is ‘always think of the bigger picture’ – simply meaning whatever you do, think before you do it and think about how this will affect, improve or hinder your future. Stop swearing on Twitter, stop posting virtually naked photos on Instagram, and don’t share or tag people in rude memes on Facebook. You should all know this, but of course you all think this doesn’t happen and you’re the exception.
rebeccammiller.wordpress.com 
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