Social media profiles: Should you set them to public or private?

Most people are aware employers could look at social network profiles of potential candidates. Statistically, 37% of companies use social media to research their applicants. However, you may not be aware that the “first impression” you make in cyber space could also be make or break you chance of getting that job. In fact, 1 in 5 tech execs say they have rejected applicants because of their social media profiles during the hiring process.

So, should you give potential employers easy access to your social media profiles or keep them hidden from view? Your LinkedIn profile should be set to public. Employers can find out about your professional side from LinkedIn, checking your references and previous positions against your CV. But what about other platforms like Facebook or Twitter? Let the debate begin!

Make your social media profiles public

1 Those on the pro-public profiles side of the debate thus argue that you should use the transparency to your advantage. Employers want to find out more about your personality, which sometimes doesn’t come across in a regular CV. Your tweets, status updates, videos, and comments will build up a picture of the “real you”. From this the employers may decide if you are going to enjoy the new job and settle into the company culture.

2 Think of yourself as a brand, with messages that need to be communicated, a reputation that needs to be carefully controlled and yourself as the manager. A public profile shows that you have nothing to hide. Employers can use your profile for fact checking. For example, cross referencing your Facebook “Likes” with your CV, they could deduce the probability of you having lied about being in the orchestra and athletics team during college!

3 Having a public profile increases the likelihood of employers approaching you! Ms Miller-Merrell, a HR consultant at Target and later OfficeMax, says “About 30 percent of the candidates I sourced in 2007, 2008 and 2009 came from Facebook and Myspace”. Interestingly, she discovered that her Facebook job seekers had a higher retention rate than those applicants found through careers fairs or newspaper advertisements. If social networks are a good place to find the right candidate, then job seekers should make their presence known and think about using Facebook and Twitter for the job search.

Keep everything set to private

1. Spending your whole cyber-social life focusing solely on “What would future employers think of this?” then you won’t enjoy yourself as much – the same principle as limiting yourself to activities that look good on your CV. Keeping it all private means you won’t need to worry about making a good impression and can just enjoy yourself online.

2 There can be concerns about hiring through social media. Candidate information gleaned from social media research is usually a casual browse for the hiring party, so there is no process in place to store the findings. CIO magazine predicts that such practices are “going to create a lot of problems in the next couple of years” as legal cases about employment discrimination arise.

3 You may have strong views on what is classified as professional life and personal, with personal being a strictly private sphere. If this is your belief, then don’t give employers a chance to blur the boundaries and let them focus on your professional merits.

Conclusion

So, we’ve looked at the opposing sides on whether or not to set your social media profiles to public or private. If you genuinely don’t mind having your social life published online for all to see, then by all means go public. The events industry ever more integrated with the digital world, so having a clean public profile could show you’re engaged with social and the latest event innovations. But, what’s best for you will depend on your opinions on privacy, what your potential employer prioritises are and the state your profile is in. Also, do remember that once you publish anything to the internet, a record of it will remain there forever, even if you have deleted it from your profile.

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