As a student this can be a very stressful time of year because of exams, deadlines and pressure to get a great placement. Just imagine if you had made the effort to apply for an internship, only for your potential employers to see something they don’t approve of on your Facebook profile. Everything you have worked for could spiral down the plug hole, just because of a few drunken pictures and an inappropriate ‘Frape’ from your housemates.
This is a potential risk for anyone starting out in their career and is why it is so important to take precautions to safeguard your employability – especially since social media can really help you to find placements and jobs. It can also aid you in connecting and engaging with professionals that you might never get the chance to meet offline. Every PR needs to build their personal brand online so that potential employers can get a strong sense of who you are and what you have done.
So, the big questions we all need to ask ourselves are these: how should I use each of my social media accounts? If I set all of them to private, will it appear as if I am hiding something? Should I keep them public but face the risk of my potential employer deeming something I have posted as inappropriate?
What every digital native should consider
First and foremost, it’s important to remember that when applying for a job you should keep in mind how a company would expect you to act if you worked for them. Very few businesses would want a picture of you on a night out appearing on a Google search of the company name, therefore it’s up to you to ensure they don’t.
As PR’s we are told that we should always be transparent and visible. Therefore, perhaps we need to think about using social media to show just how open we are. One of the best ways to achieve this is to have a strong social media presence that illustrates that you know how to utilise social networks. To do so, why not use a mixture of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube? And try out new ones like Pinterest?
Most importantly, use these social networks in different ways. For example, most people use Facebook as their own private space to talk to their friends and family. However, some use their Facebook profiles as portfolios – especially models, actors and dancers. It is important that you are comfortable with where you draw the line and know whether to keep your profile private or use it in a professional capacity.
Twitter is a great tool for networking with professionals in your industry and it is often important to have strict boundaries on what content you tweet. Many people make use of Twitter as a personal profile, but this isn’t always appropriate if you are using it for networking and business conversations.
So, here are my top five tips on how to use social networks appropriately:
· Make your Facebook profile private if you are intending to use it for communicating with your friends in a personal capacity. You can do this by going to the top right hand corner of your profile and clicking on the drop-down option. You then need to choose “privacy settings” and then select the option of “friends” instead of “public”. This means that if your Facebook profile comes up on Google, visitors will only be able to see your profile picture.
· If you use your Facebook account for professional reasons and keep it public then it might be a better idea to set it up as a Page. This will automatically be recognised as a professional page and allow you to still use your own Facebook account for personal connections.
· Select the right social media channel for different groups within your life. Make sure that you use a different profile for talking to your friends and when liaising with your professional network.
· Ensure that each of your public social media channels are consistent. You need to convey the same messages and values throughout. If you are contradicting yourself, this could confuse a potential employer.
· Finally, ask yourself this: would your mum approve of what you are posting? If the answer is no, I wouldn’t hit the send button.
Charlotte Pittock-Holdsworth is a second year Public Relations with Marketing student at Leeds Metropolitan University. The founder of Social Relations, a social media agency based in Leeds, Charlotte handles social media accounts for independent clients and conducts white label work for digital agencies. She has just secured an in-house PR placement with Vauxhall, which will commence in July 2012.
You can follow Charlotte on Twitter here.
