2012 statistics show more than 1/3 of potential employers search for prospective employees' public Facebook activities. It's just one example of why social media and online behavior matters. The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District's "Success@Work" (#successatwork) program for co-ops and summer students includes tips and recommendations for how to conduct yourself online to increase your #wins and minimize your #fails.
Presented by the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District’s Communications & Community Relations department
Did you know? Stats from April 2012 regarding social media, specifically Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
The Sewer District is trying to stay active in social media to attract new talent, engage younger audiences, and serve customers better.
More and more of us are using social media to express ourselves. One question is, are we expressing too much? What are you saying about yourself, your choices, behavior, attitudes, etc. and how does it reflect upon you as an individual, student, or potential employee? It’s important to pay attention to that.
Even if your social media security settings are private, you never know what might be shared by your friends and followers. Some of the tips we’ll talk about in the next few minutes will emphasize why it’s important to be aware of this, and how you can make the most of your social media accounts in life, school, and your career search.
We’d like to share some “success at work” tips for students to help them be aware of their online activities and their potential impacts, both positive and negative.
If you wouldn’t want it on a billboard, probably don’t want it on your status.
Understand that your SM comments and activities are a reflection on you as a person, an employee, etc. What are your comments, shares, or RTs saying about you?
Know your security settings. Know your profiles. Know what people are seeing or can see about you, because your future employers may be interested.
This is an example of a summer student’s public Twitter profile (2011). We found it doing a general student search to determine what information students were sharing, just an experiment as we put this presentation together. This bio may or may not be something you’d want an educator or potential boss to see. The bio and the posts were unprotected and open to the public.
Our @wallywaterdrop started following this student, and shortly thereafter, the student secured the tweets and updated the public bio. I use it as an example because the student understood the potential impact and made changes after that realization.
Search Twitter for the phrase “hate my job.” Plenty of results. What kind of tweets fill your twitterstream? Do you share complaints, successes, questions, recommendations? What are those kind of posts saying about you and your attitudes?
Consider your status updates as entries in your professional portfolio. Would you want them there? Social media is a great opportunity to make connections, network, discuss, and more. Judgment is very important, and it might be worth thinking twice before you post anything online.