It’s very easy to have a love hate relationship with social media, it’s a great way to keep in touch with friends and loved ones and also act as a promotional tool to keep in instant contact with a captive audience of potential clients. People buy off people so the trust can be instant when someone sees that a friend recommends a product or service but it can also swing the other way when they don’t have a kind word to say about an experience. The same can be said for sharing too much information that can paint a picture of you to a potential employer or client and they can form an opinion not to work with you based on what your online footprint looks like. Information is so easily accessible with smart phones and social media platforms so you need to be extremely mindful of what you post and where you post it as it may well come back to haunt you and cost you a job or client. The below tips should be considered when next posting on social media.
• Don’t vent online about colleagues, clients or employers – Keep it classy and keep problems to yourself - people can interpret things in many different ways so be mindful of this when posting a status and commenting on a post
• Think before you snap – Photos with only half of your clothes on, drunken falling out of a bar or a selfie laying on a bed are not the kind of pictures potential clients, employees or employers need to be seeing of you so avoid those ones as profile photos
• Know your privacy settings – I know being private really goes against the point of social media and it’s your account, so if you insist on freedom around what you post ensure your settings are locked down and incredibly private
• Keep work and play separate - If you want to use social media for work and business development create a separate account or be mindful of what you post professionally and personally
