Will Facebook Bite You On The Bum

Will Facebook bite you on the bum…

I am sure Facebook will not bite with intent, however what you portray on Facebook, Twitter may well bite you hard. Those excellent Wednesday and Saturday nights where you post the piccies and tweets of those wonderful antics. Those posts how you rang in sick… Could not drag myself out bed brilliant night etc… We have all had them, let ‘s just keep those things to ourselves.

The big question Why?

It seems that schools and employers are looking to social media to get a first hand look at a prospective student or employee.

Miriam Salpeter, a job search and social media coach and author of “Social Networking for Career Success,” says people should “assume everything that is online (on social media) is public.” need to find link

So just beware.

Yes you can make things private, however you do realize that nothing is really that private on the Internet.

The most exciting thing about Facebook biting you on the bum is that you can do it to show your skill, your passion, your goals, lots of things that a prospective school or employer will love seeing. A philosophy you could have when it comes to social media is that you see the good in everyone so when you want to “bag” someone you can turn it around and say something positive about them and your closest friends will certainly be able to read between the lines and you have not damaged your reputation.

The things you can do to enjoy that Facebook bite on the bum:

1. Let’s start with Facebook ensure all your information is filled out eg. schools, education history, interests, hobbies etc. This shows two things, one your actual history and two that you took the time to fill it out. Also ensure this information is made public so everyone can see it so when you are being looked up their is something of interest to see. You can look up promising schools or employers, their company and find out their interests and have an advantage when it comes to the interview process, just knowing that they are keenly interested in something you are and it comes out in interview – just about guaranteed offer.
2. A great place to showcase your talent, passion and goal is LinkedIn. LinkedIn remains a social network with a great professional persona. You can network with people looking for jobs, you can network with former and current employers, employees, work and school colleagues about your future. This site is ver job-focussed and the more interactive with this site the more opportunities for those offers. You can start your own group or join. Many professional groups where you can be stimulated and learn a heap of information as well, it is certainly worth researching more.
3. Twitter is focussed on quick short tweets to share information about what you are doing, where you are and displaying information of interest. So again you can use this to your advantage. If you have skills in a certain area then share snippits of this skill. Follow people you admire, who have same interests and of course potential schools and employers.
4. Lastly, you should get a YouTube channel, these are free, and start videoing things of interest and benefit to you and others.
Of course if Facebook has already bitten you on the bum it is not too late to turn the table. From this point forward just interact on the social networks with a different mindset, play to your strengths and watch your credibility grow, and prospective and even current schools and employers will have no need to dig too far.

So if your waiting for those brilliant offers then let Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube bite you, but for the right reasons and watch those offers roll in.

Enjoy Kaz :)