Social Media: Keep Them Separated?

Social media and the job search – you almost have to consider them as going hand-in-hand these days. More and more hiring agents are going to the internet to check out the social side of potential job candidates which is why social media sites are so important. Are your social media sites professional enough to pass inspection by those prying eyes? If not, you should consider taking some kind of action, because it may be hindering your job search.

Of course, the first question is, are you out there in the social media world to begin with? I know it is hard to believe for some people, but there are still many people who avoid the whole social media world. I have plenty of friends like that (and no, they are not old people friends either), so I know it is still happening on a wide scale. So, if you are in job search mode, and do not have at least a couple active social media sites, it may be hurting your search. There have even been stories of  career fields that used Twitter instead of accepting a resume’, or the one that simply used the Twitter idea as a step in the interview process. The fact is, today’s job search can be benefited by social media, especially for networking, but you have to use it wisely.

Over the years, there has been much discussion on whether it is good to create two separate social media entities, one for the professional you, one for the personal. Doing so would allow you to publish career and professional material only on the one, and fun, personal, not-so professional material on the other.

“Having separate professional and personal social media profiles is one of the first signs of mental illness. Ok, not really, but the stress of juggling several social media accounts is enough to make anybody go crazy — especially me,” says Ameena Rasheed on the NABJ Digital blog site. That seems to be a key concern, just the amount of work needed to maintain two entities, as well as the confusion it will cause for people looking for you. Plus, as some have pointed out, it is technically against the terms and service to have two Facebook accounts, so this option is only of consideration on other services.

Some have decided to simply make their LinkedIn page all professional, while keeping Facebook, etc. all personal. However, there is not always a way to stop people from seeing the personal stuff. Over the years though, at least with Facebook, there have been many changes that can help out here. By using the Facebook groups and filters options, you can now have much more control over who your material is appearing to when submitted. Each post now allows you to choose who can see it, which can help you filter your material.

Personally, I have about twenty different Facebook groups set up, mainly to assist me in slowing down my news feed, but also to allow me to focus on viewing specific sets of updates at one time. To keep it simpler for this scenario, you can just create one group, and put all of your personal friends into it, leaving the professional contacts out. Then, when you go to post something fun or personal, choose to filter it only to that group. However, when you go to post something professional, post it as “public” so that everyone not in that group can see it, friend or not. This way if a potential employer comes along who is not a Facebook friend, they can still view content on your profile and it will appear to be all professional.

For other networks, it may be more difficult to keep personal and professional separated, so other tactics could be considered, such as using a pet screen name for services that you do not want to be easily located by professionals looking up your name.

Of course, then there is the option to just always present yourself in a somewhat professional manner, so as not to have anything embarrassing on your sites that could hinder your job search. Later on in his blog post, Rasheed relayed this good advice that he was given regarding social media, “She told me to think of three positive things that you want to be known for, three negative things you don’t want to be known for and then filter your content by what is on those lists.” The main thing to take from this is, social media is being watched by employers more and more, and more and more stories pop up of people losing jobs, missing out on jobs, and other repercussions, simply because of what is publically accessible on their social media sites.

When was the last time you checked your social media sites?  Do you have anything on your sites that would cause a prospective employer to think twice about you?  Check it out today.

Image courtesy of Adamr at FreeDigitialPhotos.net