Understanding How Social Media Correlates To Your Career

Even some of the most career savvy folks aren’t sure how to best utilize social media for their careers. In fact some have actually detriment their careers and reputations due to social media activities. We live in a world today where what you share online matters. Private account or not. A simple complaint or rant can be seen as misconduct and irresponsible online behavior.

Think before you tweet.

It seems a bit silly to think a tweet can get you fired. But it can. And it’s happened to many. There are many high-level executives that have lost their position (or asked to resign) at a company due to their social media activities. Alejandro Rhett was recently fired from J.Crew for posting “tasteless photos”. Well-known comedian Gilbert Gottfried was fired for a joke. Ashley Payne, a teacher was asked to resign due to a photo of her drinking. And Connor Riley had a sweet job offer from Cisco and it was swept from under her due to a tweet sharing her debates over the job offer. All seems pretty harmless, but still costed them their gigs.

I keep my accounts private I’m fine.

NOT. Just Google your name, it’s likely that you’ll see something you’ve posted to a social media platform. Search engines know the popularity of social media websites and often put weight within their algorithms around certain posts. Do an image search using your full name on Google and it’s likely you’ll see your Facebook profile image. Private accounts don’t protect you, we live in an online world, if you want to be career savvy, you must be PC even on your private social media networks

So what do you do about those bad tweets, and those college photos from a years past?

You’ll have to spend some time scrolling through all of your social media account feeds (yep all the way to 2009) deleting what you might not what your boss, or potential hiring managing to see. Not sure? Have a friend or family member take a look. Or ping me, I’d be happy to do a creative consult.

Here’s a few tips as you scroll through your social mediums:

-If you wouldn’t put it on a website/letter describing yourself you should probably delete it.

-Scroll through your photos on all your social media profiles and delete any that could be misconstrued (look closely at items within the frame).

-Profanity? A shit every now and then won’t hurt, but a rant may, best to delete. You vented you made your point at that time, why keep it?

-Not your finest hour? Don’t fret Google offers a service (somewhat extensive) to request removal of items from the Internet.