There’s a question I’ve heard a number of times, and have even asked of myself during the Social Media Driving Licence: who is going to bother looking at what I put out on social media?
According to Karen Siegfried in her excellent podcast on social media and employability your future employers are.
And it might not just be the content you hope they’ll see that they find. You can professionally craft your LinkedIn profile but employers may also be looking at Facebook, Twitter, blogs you write and any other channels you use. Also it won’t just be content that you’ve put out that they find but information, especially photos, that others may have tagged you in.
This could be seen as quite unnerving by some and your natural instinct may be to hide and not get involved at all. But this may not help either. Employers are now expecting you to have a social media presence and having none could be just as detrimental to your employment prospects as having a negative one.
Studies have shown that this behaviour by employers is increasing. It’s understandable, as social media becomes more engrained in everyday life and the content there is taken increasingly seriously by a larger proportion of the population it is natural that employers will start vetting candidates using any information they can find.
As awareness of this use for social media content becomes more prominent I wonder if it could change the way people interact with these tools. Instead of encouraging openness could it lead to a restriction of the information that people are willing to share? As younger generations realise that content they post in youth could impact their future careers will people increasingly put a veneer over what they share and become less inclined to interact honestly? Could it also lead to wider discrimination in the workplace with employers able to access information about candidates that they shouldn’t be asking for?
Well it doesn’t need to turn out this way. In my view this use of social media provides opportunity. Used well it can be a powerful tool that could lead to a whole realm of job opportunities. Any chance for interaction with your future employer is an advantage giving you the opportunity to put yourself ahead of the competition.
People should be concious of how their content could be used and perceived and employers should be responsible in their searching of this information. But this won’t happen naturally and this is where another opportunity presents itself – for librarians and information professionals. We are in a unique position to guide users on how to make the most out of these tools, how to manage your personal data through social media and so get the best experience you can.
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