"Make social media work for you (not against you)"

What I have been telling my students for many years now: "Recruiters are looking at your social media posts."

Here, writing in Mint, Infancia Cardozo explains how you can ensure that potential employers like what they see and how to improve your hireability.

 Read this instructive and enlightening article in its entirety here.

• ALSO READ: "Facebook: Boon or bane?"

Don't get burned by your online profile

From an article published in Bloomberg Businessweek two days ago:

Think before you post, especially if you’re looking for a job. Seems like common sense, doesn’t it? Yet despite all the advice and warnings to be cautious with social media, job applicants continue to get burned by their online profiles.

Read the piece in its entirety here: Hey Job Applicants, Time to Stop the Social-Media Sabotage.

Afterwards, learn how to scan and delete your old, embarrassing posts from your social networking site: "Get rid of digital clutter".

And you will also want to read this post that I discovered on the Time magazine website: "Facebook Etiquette: Avoid These 5 Common Mistakes".

MUST-READS:

• "Mind your e-language"

• "A Facebook conversation that illustrates the perils of copying and pasting status messages, or sharing links, without studying closely those messages or links"

• "Facebook: Boon or bane?"

Why everyone should think before communicating through social media

Ilya Pozin, a contributor to the "Entrepreneurs" section on the Forbes website, has posed two important questions in a recent post:

On sites like Twitter and Facebook, do all old-school means of social etiquette get thrown out the window? Or do most people not even know what classifies as proper social etiquette to begin with?

In turn, he lists 12 questions that he says you must ask yourself before you hit "post" on Facebook:

Should I target a specific audience with this message?

Will anyone really care about this content besides me?

Will I offend anyone with this content? If so, who? Does it matter?

Is this appropriate for a social portal, or would it best be communicated another way?

How many times have I already posted something today? (More than three can be excessive.)

Did I spell check?

Will I be okay with absolutely anyone seeing this?

Is this post too vague? Will everyone understand what I’m saying?

Am I using this as an emotional dumping ground? If so, why? Is a different outlet better for these purposes?

Am I using too many abbreviations in this post and starting to sound like a teenager?

Is this reactive communication or is it well thought-out?

Is this really something I want to share, or is it just me venting?

Read Ilya Pozin's post in its entirety here: "Social Media Etiquette: 12-Step Checklist".

• Thank you, Rigved Sarkar (Class of 2010), for the alert.

ADDITIONAL READING:

"Facebook: Boon or bane?"

"Are you revealing more than you should on Facebook?"

"How you interact with people on any platform on the Web and what you say about issues is an indication of the kind of person you are"