Social media comes with many opportunities for everyone. For professionals, a platform like LinkedIn allows them to network and boost their career to a new height. Job seeking graduates also use LinkedIn and Twitter to get jobs.
Apart from job opportunities, social media is also a safe haven for almost everybody to express everything and anything that comes to their mind.
Depending on how you use it, the freedom to express yourself on these platform could either boost or ruin your career; and if you’re a job seeking graduate, your views on social media could kill your chances of getting the job you really want.
However, if you think employers don’t check your social media pages during hiring process, you are wrong. According to a survey conducted by Jobvite in 2014, “53% of recruiters have reconsidered a candidate based on their social profile.
So, here are some social mistakes that could do a permanent damage to your career.
- Oversharing
Yes, social media gives you the freedom to express yourself, but not everybody wants to hear about the details of your private life.
Think about this. Would you stand in your office and scream about how you got drunk and had sex with your girl-friend? Posting this on social media is as bad as standing at the center of your office telling people how many people you had sex with over the weekend.
This is a gross oversharing. Employers looking through your social media posts might find it distasteful and decide to throw your application in the bin.
- Complaining about your job and boss
It’s very easy to go on Twitter to rant about issues, but making a thread complaining about your job and your boss is never the way to go.
If you think your boss won’t see it because he’s not on Twitter, a colleague seeking the boss’ attention might show him what you say about him on social media and you know what that means.
Even if the boss doesn’t deem it fit to sack you, dissing your colleague on social media could come back to haunt you later. A future employer might see it and decide to ignore your application for that reason.
- Using texting language
Many people don’t seem to pay attention to how they write what they post on social media. It might seem like no big deal but writing am instead of I’m or misusing its and it’s might turn a potential employer off and that could in turn hurt your chances of getting a job.
According to Jobvite survey, 66 percent of employers look negatively upon poor spelling and grammar on social media.
- Posting offensive comments
Any comment that may offend a group or a community could cost you your job. For example, in June 2018, the Chair of Vanguard editorial board, Ochereome Nnanna in a Facebook post referred to the Yorubas as sophisticated morons. His post caused lots of outrage and many Nigerians called for his sack. Nnanna later apologized asking Yoruba people to forgive him.
So, what should you post?
There are lots of things you can share on social media to endear prospective employers to your social media pages. Employers look positively on those who post and share interesting articles and information. Post opinion articles and insights about industry events and news. Doing this will not only keep you informed about the industry, you can also use them to back up your resume.
