With the advent of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram and now TikTok, people are inclined to publish just about anything in relation to their personal lives, their political views, opinions and in general tend to let their guard down when social networking.
Employers are of course interested in your skills and ability to do the job first and foremost, however in any placement there are also character traits to consider, and you don’t want your online content to jeopardise this by posting something that could be construed as offensive. Now of course there must be a line drawn between what goes on in our personal lives and what goes on in our professional lives and people have the right to publish whatever they want, but when this information is readily available to prospective employers, it is best to be cautious and keep comments, updates, photos, and shares at the very least respectable and choose your audience wisely.
On any social media platform, always customise your privacy options to prevent unwanted eyes from accessing your content and keep your content clean. Post content applicable to that forum, for example on LinkedIn only post work/industry related topics and certainly don’t use it as a means to air your views about colleagues, current or past employers. Be careful when and where you post, for instance I have heard many instances of employees calling in sick and then they post a photo of themselves sipping a cool beer delighted with life or swinging down a zip line. Another good idea is to search for yourself on Google or Yahoo and see what comes up. If you find the results are shall we say, questionable, then go to that site and delete the content if you think it appropriate to do so.
The age of big brother is here whether we like it or not! It’s not something to be concerned about but it is important you manage it and be always mindful of your online brand.