Social Media and Public Relations

Use these tools to benefit you and your future career

By:Simone Jackson

The fact that there are people questioning  whether or not potential employers should consider  your online social accounts during the hiring process is ridiculous. There is a reason we post pictures,tweet, like, tag, and retweet.  Obviously,we do it because its enjoyable, but we also take advantage of it  because we want to display a certain message of who we are to the those who may not know us personally.  I feel one of the reasons why social media has become so popular in recent years is because it gives people the opportunity to be someone else.You can reinvent yourself online, and this is appealing to many people.

Anything you put online, you put there for a reason.  You would not have posted something if you didn’t want other people to see it.  Therefore, to be upset that a potential employer is looking up information that you voluntarily posted  is crazy. Employers who do not search their  potential employees on Facebook and Twitter are doing themselves a huge disservice.  If you are upset about an employer looking at your online profiles, then there must be something on there that you do not want them to see.

The bigger problem is that too many people are too relaxed when they tweet and post statuses or pictures.  To me,social media accounts are a true indication of who you are as a person and they tell a lot of  other things about you as well.  The conclusion that others come to about you from looking at your online profiles has a lot to do with your own actions. As a student, I try to be as careful as possible of the things I post because I do not want anyone getting the wrong impression about who I am as a person.  If more people were cognizant of what they posted, maybe employers wouldn’t feel a need to “creep,” but because they know that most people post and tweet whatever comes to mind, social media sites are a helpful tool to employers and they are smart to take advantage of them.

I believe that if you post or tweet something you should stand behind it, especially if you are questioned about it by an employer.  If something was worthy of a tweet or Facebook status, then it must be something that you thought was important.  I would recommend telling a future employer about your posts on social media, if you feel that the topics are things that could easily be misleading.  Explaining your views on why you chose to post a certain status or tweet could help them to understand you as a person and to learn about your personal thoughts and beliefs, which could be an advantage during the hiring process.

On the other hand, there have been cases of potential employers requesting  the passwords to their future employees Facebook and other social network pages.  This is not ethical. I do not believe that anyone has the right to require that they have your personal passwords before they will hire you.  No job is that serious, and if an employer insists that they have the passwords, it is probably not a job you want anyway. A better method would be to say”no,” if an employer asks for you passwords, and to offer to log into your accounts  and let them look through the pages while you are at the interview.

At this day in age, we have to be aware of the  power that social networks have and the role they play in our lifestyles. Potential employers have to the right to search you and they should in order to make sure they are hiring the best person for their company’s needs. As users of social networks, we have to be mindful of this at all times.  Think responsibly about the decisions you make online, because they could come back to haunt you.