The following is a guest post by Emily Benner.
Image Credit: Twitter.com
Ah, another blog post about social media during the job hunt. Let’s try to dig past all of the standard responses of “it’s my personal account, so I should be able to post whatever I want,” and the inevitable rebuttal of “to be taken seriously as a professional, you have to start acting like one on your social media account.”
The fact of the matter is, even if you are making an effort to present a professional façade with an industry-related blog or an extra Twitter account touting smart posts (no matter how clean!), it’s not good enough if you’re hiding behind another account.
In a job market like this, hiring managers don’t want to spend a lot of time sifting through the muck of your social media accounts. Frankly, they have a dozen other candidates lined up to check out who are equally qualified. So you, as the candidate, need to take the extra steps to make it easy for them to get to know you.
With that being said, and I really do hate to lecture, take a look at your social accounts right now—all of them. Would you be comfortable with a hiring manager looking at them? Be honest with yourself about that and try to see past how witty you are in 140-characters or less. If your social media messages aren’t completely clean and hiring manager-friendly, you might want to rethink your accounts and adjust accordingly—it can only help you in your job search.
Take that a step farther now—try to step out and look at your accounts as if you were an outsider who didn’t know you. Would you be impressed that you are the defending mayor of Shorty’s Sports Bar and Pub? Is that the kind of thing you (1) need to post about in the first place and (2) want a future employer to know?
But, are you one of those people who has separate accounts—a public one and a private one? Be cautious about this, because not only will it raise some questions about you (“What is he/she hiding from me behind this protected account that I can’t know?”) but also it could make employers completely rethink their decision to consider you as a top candidate for their position.
Think, too, about what you are posting behind that private account wall. Complaining about your job to 500 of your “closest friends” would be a bad idea, even if you think you are protected by their “limited” access. You never know who will have a connection in a company you are applying to, or who could become a client at your next job. In this case (and any, really), it’s best to think about your social media accounts as a medium to reinforce your professionalism—right now, nothing should be more important to you than your reputation as a professional. Operating behind the guise that any social networking site will offer you the protection of anonymity is foolish and might burn you one day.
Consider, however, the other side of the social media coin: an industry-related blog, for example. I have personally witnessed a candidate be ruled out for blogging about her hiring experience using real names, departments, and details about her interview. She didn’t say anything negative and all of her commentary was quite positive, but because the hiring managers didn’t like she used their real names, she lost the opportunity.
A good rule of thumb to follow when it comes to social media of any kind is to think twice before you post. Can your post be misconstrued to offend someone? Is it a controversial topic? Would a hiring manager consider it a reason to rule you out as a candidate?
If the answer to any of those questions is “yes”, then you might want to ask yourself what the benefit is of posting it to a social media account at all.
About the Author:
Emily Benner is a PR and marketing professional in the Orlando area. She is a lover of soup and all things pumpkin-flavored. Connect with her at EmilyJBenner.com.
