Just as we dust out the cobwebs from our house, every now and then we need to dust out the cobwebs from our social profiles too. If you’ve ever thought that your future employers will not browse through your social profiles online, you’re in for a rude shock. When you apply for a job, a social media clean-up should be your number one priority. This is because employers don’t just settle for your resume, but they also do a background check in which your social profiles plays an important role in determining your selection.
Here’s how you can do a discreet social media clean-up!
1. Change everything on your account to private mode-
The best way to avoid any unnecessary clutter is by keeping your account private. This will ensure that only your friends and followers can view your posts. Facebook allows you to upload all your posts in private mode. On other social networking sites, you can keep your accounts private to avoid outside intrusion.
2. Get rid of posts with inflammatory content-
Unlike the verbal banter that you have with your friends which is immediately forgotten in the next moment, social media retains all the profanities and crass content you’ve ever written on your profile for everyone to see. A social media clean-up entails deleting every post of yours that contains inflammable content. If you let these posts linger on your profile, they will prove how careless, aggressive and ill-mannered you can get on a public forum which may hurt your chances of landing a job.
3. The Social Media Clean-up for posts with typos-
We have all passed through the phase when typing ‘lYk diS’ was considered cool. Using uppercase and lowercase unnecessarily as well as changing the spellings of words just for the fun of it simply shows how immature you were and that you followed the bandwagon blindly. Wipe out all such posts. If they make for good memories, take a few screenshots and keep them in your phone gallery.
4. Talk about controversial matters maturely-
We often use social media as a platform to express our opinions. This may also include expressing our views on controversial topics like politics. If you don’t have much knowledge on a certain topic, it is wise to refrain from commenting. If you take a stand on something without knowing the head and tail of it, you’ll end up making a laughing stock of yourself in addition to making future employers wary.
5. Upload Appropriate Display pictures-
Your display picture is the first thing people notice. LinkedIn, being a professional networking app, requires you to have a professional head shot as your display picture. However, your display picture on other sites also speak volumes about you. A blank display depicts a lazy operator, while one with a cat or a celebrity is just as off-putting. Blurry images or dated photos aren’t recommended as well. It’s best to have a decent current photo of you.
Once the clean-up is underway, make sure you are careful about what you put up on the internet henceforth as one Google search of your name has the power to bare more than you intended!
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