Your personal social media profiles can potentially seriously affect your professional life.
“Because we tend to view our personal social media accounts as being ‘personal,’ there’s a good chance that by viewing someone’s profile, you’ll get a glimpse into their personality beyond the resume,” said DeeAnn Sims-Knight, founder of Dark Horse PR. [Read related article: Tips for Creating a Great Resume]
Tips for passing social media screenings
Follow these tips to benefit from potential employers performing social media screenings:
1. Don’t erase your profile.
While the fear of something embarrassing or negative being discovered might tempt some job candidates to completely erase their online persona, employers say that strategy can backfire.
About 1 in 5 employers in The Harris Poll’s survey said they won’t call a person for an interview if they can’t find them online. In addition to seeming like you’re trying to hide something, it’s not a good idea to delete your profile, because it doesn’t guarantee the data is completely gone. Instead, the best practice is to keep your social accounts clean and up to date.
“Erasing all of your profiles often implies that you have something to hide,” said Dana Case, VP of operations at MyCorporation. “Many LinkedIn or Instagram accounts may still show up in Google searches [after you delete them], even on a cached basis.”
2. Use social media to your benefit.
Despite what job candidates might think, most employers are looking for reasons to hire someone. The Harris Poll surveyed over 1,000 employers and found that 67 percent of them look for information that supports a candidate’s qualifications to get them through the door.
You can use your social media profiles to promote content that shows your knowledge, professionalism and commitment to growth – characteristics that any employer will want to see. If you’re truly passionate about your career, share your accomplishments and interesting content from others in the same space as well. This will showcase your personal interest in the job and encourage employers about your ability to perform and grow in the role you’re applying for.
3. Google yourself.
Every few weeks or months, take a minute to Google yourself in an incognito window. This is likely where your employer is going to start when they take a look at your online presence, so it’s good to know what will pop up. This will also help you get ahead of anything negative, so you can make sure all the top search results are things you would be fine with your employer seeing.
You might even consider setting up Google alerts for yourself, so if anything new pops up, you’ll know right away. If everything remains positive, you’re good to go. If there is something you’d rather erase, there are companies you can work with to help improve your online presence.
Social media is one of many ways that you can improve your chances of getting hired. In addition to maintaining the proper online presence, you can use these apps to your advantage to show off your personality and work ethic.
How to make your profiles private
Since it’s legal for employers to check public social media accounts, consider creating at least one account for professional purposes and keeping personal accounts private.
“One of the best strategies I have seen is creating multiple, separate social media accounts on social media platforms,” Case said. “Job seekers may have a professional Instagram account, for instance, where they share their office and work wins. They may also have a more private personal account that is locked and only allows a select number of individuals to follow it.”
Be wary of hiring managers requesting information beyond what’s available online. This is similar to employers asking inappropriate questions during interviews, and should raise a red flag about the firm.
“I have heard of employers asking candidates to provide their password and login credentials for social media,” Erhard said. “This is not technically illegal in many places, though, in my mind, it’s an uncomfortable invasion of privacy.”
Think before you post
Social media is an extension of yourself, and although it sometimes feels like cyberspace is detached from the real world, your actions online can have consequences for your professional life. When creating and sharing content on your social media profiles, stop and take a moment to think about how it may reflect on you beyond your immediate friend group. If a potential employer were to see it during a screening, would it harm your chances of landing that big job you’ve been hoping for? If so, consider not sharing it in the first place, or at the very least creating separate profiles for recreational posting and setting them to private.
Tejas Vemparala and Nicole Fallon contributed to this article. Source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.