Social media etiquette

You have the job interview you’ve been dreaming about most of your adult life. What do you do? You prepare what you are going to say, you focus on calming your nerves and then make sure to bring in your professional resume and cover letter. You go for the interview and do better then you expected, leaving the interview room excited and hopeful. A week later, the employer calls you. They said that you did a great job in the interview however they had a browse through your social media accounts and are now not going to hire you due to what you have posted. It isn’t as direct and blunt as that example but employers do look at the social media of people they interview. This is why you must have a professional online presence or set your accounts privacy settings to where employers can’t see what you post.

When you are working, you are representing a company so what you post online is important. If you continuously post party shots with alcohol and drugs for example, that isn’t a good representation of yourself professionally therefore can affect the company. Here are some guidelines to follow to have a professional looking social media account (that an employer can see and be happy with)

-       Have a profile picture of you looking your best (no drunk shots or ‘duck lips’)

-       Have your name and age be correct  

-       Don’t swear in any posts that you upload

-       Play by the rules of the social media website

-       Don’t post anything bad about any job you’ve had (example… ‘Ahhh I hate my job…)

-       Be respectful in what you post

-       Don’t engage commenter’s that misbehave on your blog

-       Never post while drunk or incredibly upset

-       Keep well written status’ on LinkedIn

-       Keep your social media account up to date.

To summarize, an employer can always look you up on the web so it’s best if you either have two accounts, one professional and one private. You can always just have one account for each social media platform and be careful of what you post making sure it represents you well. Happy posting

Click here to go to a website that talk about your online presence in social media!

Privacy issues when using social media

You go to a party and meet new people you want to keep in contact with. How will you do that? If this was in the early 2000’s, you would exchange phone numbers and then call each other however time has moved us forward. We now are in 2016 where the world we live in is based around social media.  There are several media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. What each account has in common is that they all have the option of people as friends or followers, following what you do online. On Facebook, you use friend requests to add people, if they accept the request then you can view each other’s timelines. On Twitter, you are able to follow anyone or have anyone follow you and see what is posted. On Instagram, you follow people but have the preference of making your account private so that you can see and accept who sees your pictures.

This is a wonderful world that we live in as we are all very connected into each other’s lives. We can see what is happening for people on the other side of the world with just a click of a button.  Social media has created a platform which allows us to express ourselves through words and pictures. As there are many benefits to having social media, there are a lot of risks that come from it. Every social media platform has privacy settings however if used nonchalantly, many problems can arise. You can have strangers seeing what you are doing, where you are in the world and what pictures you post. You can have people copying your photos to make fake accounts. You can have people essentially stalk you online or even scarier, in real life as a result of seeing what you post.  People scam naïve people online, taking their money. On Facebook and Instagram, you have the option of adding where you are when the post is uploaded. This is great as people can see where you are but people know where you are! Possible strangers can track where, see that you’re not at home and take advantage of that.

There are a lot of ways to avoid any problems that can come from having an account on any social media platform. On Facebook, you can choose who sees your post. You have to be careful in who you add as a friend and who you accept as a friend. If you do not know them, don’t add them.  That goes for most social media sites. Being careful with what you post is a must. Adjusting your privacy settings and keeping them up to date is something that everyone should do and not take lightly!

 Click this to go to a website that is all about privacy and social media