Be my guest: Lauren Hopkins
As I explored more of some of my classmates blogs this week I cam across a blog that I feel is very important to anyone using social media sites. This blog post is by Lauren Hopkins titled Passing Employer’s “Background Check”
My mom e-mailed me this article: Employers monitor your social networking profile. More and more companies are spying on their employees as how much time they spend in the social web whether it’s on Facebook or Twitter. Companies are also watching carefully the content on their employees’ profile. This is reality, especially for students and job seekers.
Just like a portfolio or an interview, a person’s character says it all. Even though an employee might be outstanding in their career, they have to be careful on how they conduct themselves outside the professional world. For example, I am aware of what I say on Facebook , what I post, and what images are on my profile. It doesn’t make much sense for me to prepare a professional portfolio, resume, and go to various conferences to further my public relations career if my social profile content isn’t professional or appropriate to share with potential employers.
Outside of work, student organizations, and class, you still represent those organizations. What you say and post on your Facebook Profile or Twitter represents those groups as well. Companies today are realizing that. As a result, companies are taking matters into their own hands by spying on their employees using a new software called Social Sentry. Social Sentry is a software that can track a person’s social web use only on Facebook and Twitter, but will also track use on LinkedIn, YouTube, and MySpace in the future.
How does this pertain to me is what you’re asking right? Well it pertains to you in so many ways. One way is the time a person spends on Facebook by updating their status throughout the day making it seem like they do not have anything else to do besides “play” on Facebook. As a result, it doesn’t look good on the employer’s side. Here are a few questions to ask yourself to make your profile more appropriate:
- if you have to question a photo, don’t upload it or tag yourself
- What groups are you associated with on Facebook? Will your mom be proud of these groups?
- What type of language is on your profile?
- if you were asked in an interview to log into your Facebook, would you be ashamed?
You never know who’s checking your profile or using Google to search for you. Companies aren’t just using the traditional background checks. They are using the social web to their advantage to conduct their background checks as well: Will you pass the background check? If not, companies may dismiss or fire employees due to their social web profile content and behavior.
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