Using Social Media to Land a Job: What We Learned (From WorkNOLA)

Have you “Google’d” yourself lately? If you haven’t, your potential boss may have. Not every employer needs to know of your reign as the 2001 Beer Pong Championship of your fraternity, or those pics from your wild weekend in Vegas. The internet is going to divulge your dirty little secrets, unless you take control.

Once you have submitted your resume for a position, odds are that someone is going to research you. Many HR directors (1 in 5) are turning to social media sites to find out more about candidates. So how do YOU brand? Social sites allow you to protect elements of what you have posted for a reason. Facebook allows you to differentiate your friends into groups that you control the level of access they have to information, and more importantly pictures. But don’t just block the bad, enhance the good. Increase your own visibility by using tools made specifically for professional networking like LinkedIn. Focus your efforts on increasing your rank in Google and other engines by adding value to your profile and expanding your network.

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