Today we have a slightly different take on marketing. We’re
posting about self-marketing. Specifically, social media and how it can help or
hurt you college students when you’re marketing yourself for a job.
Followers of The Lobster Shift know we’re firm believers in
the value of social media. But there can be a dark side to it.
For example, we’ve all heard about how a bad social media
post or tweet can hurt a college applicant or job seeker. Now comes proof of
the disconnect between young job seekers and job recruiters, courtesy of Persona, Inc., a social
media utility.
According to a recent Persona survey, 57 percent of college
students don’t think their Facebook
postings include inappropriate content. However, according to a Persona press
release nearly 70 percent of recruiters in a previous survey said that they’d
bypassed candidates based on negative online information.
That seems like a pretty big disconnect over what exactly “inappropriate
content” is.
Students seem aware of the fact that recruiters look at
their profiles. But they feel overconfident that their current Facebook
profiles don’t mar the image they’re trying to present to potential employers,
the survey seems to suggest.
Worse, they’re not being proactive in presenting a professional
Facebook page.
Persona cites three ways young job seekers might be letting
their reputations precede them.
-More than half of college students never or rarely delete or
un-tag questionable images or posts.
-Four out of five college students would still be comfortable
or very comfortable if a recruiter looked at their Facebook pages—despite the
high number of recruiters who have rejected candidates after browsing their
Facebook profiles.
-Fifty-seven percent of those surveyed by Persona say they
try to hide content, rather than activity monitor for inappropriate stuff. The
danger is that a friend might post an inappropriate comment or picture from
last Saturday’s party on a job candidate’s wall, turning off an interested
recruiter.
Lee
Sherman, Persona CEO, has some tips for college job seekers regarding
social media.
First, use social media like Facebook or Twitter to showcase your personality. Post
those things that will present you in a positive light.
Second, social media is like a dinosaur with a long
tail. The long tail is stuff posted a long time ago. Go back and scrub your
posts. Delete content back to the early years that would present you
unfavorably.
Third, use Facebook’s networking capabilities to help land
interviews by reaching out to a whole network of friends. If you’re lucky enough
to land an interview use the channel to find an existing connection in the
company.
College students on the job prowl, which should be all of
you, have to be aware, according to Persona’s Sherman, of the potential dangers of Facebook, where
one drunk photo, one salacious smile, can tank a budding professional
reputation.
So when you start building that professional reputation,
remember: in a terrible economy it’s hard enough to find a job without dragging
the long tail of your college days behind you.