En Voyage_Issue#14_Flickbook

Business
COULD SOCIAL MEDIA COST
YOU YOUR JOB?
BY ANDREW PARTLOW, DIRECTOR ALEXANDER DANIELS OFFSHORE.
You may have seen in the news
recently that an acclaimed director
was fired over inappropriate
tweets that were published almost
a decade ago, which begs the
question, could your social media
activity cost you your job?
The short answer is yes, a lot of
people forget the far-reaching
capabilities of platforms such as
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram,
especially as most of their default
settings set your content to
public; The easiest thing to do, is
make sure your profiles are set to
private, besides, for most of us, it’s
a window into our personal lives,
more on how to do that later.
CHECKING YOUR CONTRACT
Of course, you have the right to
express your personal views on
social media, thanks in part to
freedom of speech, but many
employers now add clauses to
contracts about social media activity.
On top of this, many contracts
will have a clause with regards to
bringing the company into disrepute
and your social media activity can
easily fall under this and in serious
cases can warrant instant dismissal.
With that in mind, do carefully review
your contract and, if your employer
has one, employee/IT handbook.
HOW TO LOCK DOWN
YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA
Interestingly, a survey conducted
in 2018 by Harris Poll stated that
up to 70% of recruiters admitted
to vetting candidates on social
media as part of the recruitment
process and more than half found
content on social media that caused
them not to hire a candidate.
But they’re not just being nosey,
“social recruiting” is a growing
trend that will continue to be
more important as time goes by,
57% of employers are less likely to
interview if they can’t find anything
about you online, with most
employers looking for information
to back up qualifications (61%).
THE SHORT ANSWER IS
YES, A LOT OF PEOPLE
FORGET THE FAR-
REACHING CAPABILITIES
OF PLATFORMS SUCH AS
FACEBOOK, TWITTER AND
INSTAGRAM, ESPECIALLY AS
MOST OF THEIR DEFAULT
SETTINGS SET YOUR
CONTENT TO PUBLIC
As previously stated, most social
media platforms set your profiles
and content to public by default.
Maybe you don’t want to completely
lock down your social media
profiles, and that’s absolutely fine,
but if you’re wanting a degree of
privacy or want to limit what’s in the
public eye during job applications,
you’ll be glad to know that it’s
easier than you think. Having a look
through the respective platforms’
privacy settings and adjusting
accordingly is always a wise move;
Facebook for example has a handy
“View as” option which will show
you what your profile looks like to
the public, accessible from your
profile page. Facebook’s privacy
settings are very thorough, allowing
you to tweak the privacy settings
of every aspect of your profile. In
comparison, Twitter and Instagram
are quite simple; public or private. If
you want to share your content with
the world, by all means, go public
(the default setting), but if you’re
not too keen on the wider world
seeing your content, then maybe
opt to switching to a private profile.
SOCIAL BUTTERFLY OR
SOCIAL HERMIT?
In conclusion? Social media is more
important now than ever for finding
a new job, so make sure you’re
LinkedIn is up to date and try and
get some new recommendations
if you can. As for your personal
social media activity, mind what
you post and always check your
privacy settings regardless of your
current career status. There’s
no need to go into complete
anonymity, it’s all about making
sure that your public content is
controlled and responsible, just as
much as you would review your
CV before sending to recruiters.
If you think your LinkedIn profile
needs a once over or you need any
help, do get in touch with one of our
consultants, who will be happy to
help as part of our ADvisory Scheme.
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