Ten years down the track, it’s clear these early warning signs were well justified, given the overwhelming pervasiveness of social media in our lives today….
It seems that everyone is getting on the social media bandwagon and recommending that we all madly Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blog and all the rest! And staying in touch and building networks certainly makes sense… to a point!
And what’s that point?
The point beyond which you don’t want people to go in finding out “stuff” about you. Stuff that may seem innocuous at the time but may well come back to bite you months or years down the track. Stuff that may jeopardise you, your relationships, your career and so on.
The likelihood of this occurring prompted one University to remind their students that employers are increasingly monitoring these sites, and using what they find when considering job applications. On a number of occasions applicants have lost out because of what was found on social media sites. Existing employees have also lost their jobs for similar reasons. Companies can have harm done to them through the apparently innocent comments of employees.
The mantra is “Think before you post!”
If you want to do more, be more and achieve more you must read this book today!
That same university suggested a look at these sites to reinforce the thoughts:
“According to a March survey by Ponemon Institute, a privacy think tank, 35 percent of hiring managers use Google to do online background checks on job candidates, and 23 percent look people up on social networking sites. About one-third of those Web searches lead to rejections, according to the survey.” (msnbc.com)
“… Of those employers who did surf the social ‘Nets, 35% reported rejecting a candidate thanks to data they found there. Look at these stats as to the reasons why, and how many of the employers acted on such data…” read more from fastcompany.com
“… Not only are HR staffers search for information about job applicants online, most of their companies have made online screening a formal requirement of the hiring process…” read more from gigaom.com
“… The research also revealed that while 24 percent of employers had hired a member of staff based on their social-networking profile, 33 percent had also decided not to make a job offer after reviewing the content on a profile…” read more from pcworld.com
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