Using social media for advancement

[Wingsley]

Hi folks,

I have been a "chief, cook and bottle washer" for a small regional construction business since it was founded. I have a B.A. and I do extensive work as an office manager, construction site supervisor, bookkeeper, communications manger, and occasional work as videographer and DTP/graphics/web publisher. My camcorders are still tape-based, but I also have an iPad.

I dropped my Facebook account a couple of years ago when I could see that things were getting nasty and there was obviously a lot of spinning and misinformation floating around. I was concerned that if I wasted my time expressing too many opinions or quoting Snopes in response to the Facebook flotsam, it would be a waste of my time and could be counterproductive.

One of the secondary concerns I have is that I've been thinking about moving on to new work opportunities. I understand many employers are very snoopy and want to pry into your background by mining social media for beliefs, reactions and the sharing of opinions to see if you "fit". I also understand that some employers are audacious enough to demand that job applicants turn over their UserID and password for social media accounts to gain unfettered access. I find all of this creepy, biased and opening up the potential for tampering.

I am currently active on Instagram, with dormant accounts (still active but not used) on YouTube and Flickr. I do access Facebook indirectly through a family member's account to administer a few Facebook business pages for local civic organizations I am a part of. I also have a web-site that I made with Muse CC a couple of years ago that has not been updated.

I have been thinking about reactivating my Facebook account and paring off some of my misfit "friends". I've also thought about joining LinkedIn, but I'm concerned about privacy and controlling how my profile information is used.

I was also thinking about rejuvenating my web-site, and tacking on at least one WordPress blog onto it, to share some of my work and/or civic experiences.

I am really unsure about how to manage the social media situation to balance relationships, privacy, career promotion, and controlling my personal information.

I was wondering how other folks on here handle this kind of thing. What have you done to control and apply your internet presence?

 

[riverfreak]

If an employer demands credentials for your account, sue them. Don't post anything on-line you don't want to exist forever. Think about what you want to do first, and not how you want to brand yourself.

If you are really worried about privacy and social media, either don't use it (not missing much), or only use it for professional reasons. Problem (mostly) solved.

 

[eyoungren]

I've also thought about joining LinkedIn, but I'm concerned about privacy and controlling how my profile information is used.

I joined LinkedIn several years ago when I was sent a request by a person I trusted.

I was just getting into Facebook at the time so I had no clue about LinkedIn and at the time it didn't functiom like Facebook in that you had a wall and posts and all that. That came later to LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is all about building professional contacts and they give you tools to increase your likliehood of getting hired. I stayed with my account because I kept getting network requests by various people, but I have never once in all the years I've been on LinkedIn made any post.

I did go as far as to post material on my profile relevant to what I do, but that was it.

What attracts people to you on LinkedIn are the network contacts you've linked with. Any time I've been in there all the posts in the feed I've ever seen are employment or business related.

If you join LinkedIn, join because you want to make contacts that will help you professionally. Use your profile to advertise your skills, abilities and training.

Do NOT use it like Facebook where you just post anything that pops into your head. That isn't what it's for. Most of the hiring and communicating takes place in the private messaging system between you and your contacts. In short, use it only for professional business.

Any employer that demands your LinkedIn credentials or to see your profile will simply see that you are advertising yourself professionally.

I've linked to more contacts in my field simply by being there over the years with people contacting me. It's a great resource, one I have never had to use, but one that I know if I did have to use I've got people I can contact.

Just my thoughts on LinkedIn.

PS. Terminated my Facebook account some time in January I think as well as my Twitter accounts. I had to go back to Twitter later on in order to communicate with my cell carrier's support team, but that's all I use it for now. I'm logged out unless I'm talking to them and everything I've ever done there now has been messaging. No tweets.

 

[lowendlinux]

I think I'd kill all my social media except LinkedIn.

I'd use the word press blog attached to my website to talk about skills and accomplishments and use LinkedIn for it's purpose which is network maintenance.

 

[Tarek]

I think you can have two accounts on Facebook, one for personal use and one for professional one. That would really eliminate the headache of what you mentioned in your post.

 

[heehee]

Set everything to private unless they are friends and opt out of search engine for all social accounts.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Hi folks,

I have been a "chief, cook and bottle washer" for a small regional construction business since it was founded. I have a B.A. and I do extensive work as an office manager, construction site supervisor, bookkeeper, communications manger, and occasional work as videographer and DTP/graphics/web publisher. My camcorders are still tape-based, but I also have an iPad.

I dropped my Facebook account a couple of years ago when I could see that things were getting nasty and there was obviously a lot of spinning and misinformation floating around. I was concerned that if I wasted my time expressing too many opinions or quoting Snopes in response to the Facebook flotsam, it would be a waste of my time and could be counterproductive.

One of the secondary concerns I have is that I've been thinking about moving on to new work opportunities. I understand many employers are very snoopy and want to pry into your background by mining social media for beliefs, reactions and the sharing of opinions to see if you "fit". I also understand that some employers are audacious enough to demand that job applicants turn over their UserID and password for social media accounts to gain unfettered access. I find all of this creepy, biased and opening up the potential for tampering.

I am currently active on Instagram, with dormant accounts (still active but not used) on YouTube and Flickr. I do access Facebook indirectly through a family member's account to administer a few Facebook business pages for local civic organizations I am a part of. I also have a web-site that I made with Muse CC a couple of years ago that has not been updated.

I have been thinking about reactivating my Facebook account and paring off some of my misfit "friends". I've also thought about joining LinkedIn, but I'm concerned about privacy and controlling how my profile information is used.

I was also thinking about rejuvenating my web-site, and tacking on at least one WordPress blog onto it, to share some of my work and/or civic experiences.

I am really unsure about how to manage the social media situation to balance relationships, privacy, career promotion, and controlling my personal information.

I was wondering how other folks on here handle this kind of thing. What have you done to control and apply your internet presence?

If you want to use social media, why not do it under a different name?
I never use my real name on here. I'm not on FB or twitter. Never have been. Never really interested me.

I also think Linkdin is a load of BS. I've seen people endorse useless ex members of staff in there and thought what's the point?

I know we search on Linkdin for new employees. Mind you we also search the web since we took someone on who forgot to tell us the reason he had a special ankle bracelet!

 

[maflynn]

who forgot to tell us the reason he had a special ankle bracelet!

Maybe he thought it was stylish

 

[Wingsley]

I think you can have two accounts on Facebook, one for personal use and one for professional one. That would really eliminate the headache of what you mentioned in your post.

Can you do that with Instagram as well?

 

[Apple fanboy]

Can you do that with Instagram as well?

You can create an account for every email address you have.

 

[USAFA2008]

I think you can have two accounts on Facebook, one for personal use and one for professional one. That would really eliminate the headache of what you mentioned in your post.

Really? How do you do that?

 

[Tarek]

Really? How do you do that?

What do you mean by how do you do that? I'm sensing sarcasm.

 

[USAFA2008]

What do you mean by how do you do that? I'm sensing sarcasm.

How do you set up a second Facebook for professional use? My sister-in-law tried to set up another Facebook account and it locked her out of it because she already had one. My assumption from that is that it is tied into your name and date of birth but I could be wrong. I wasn't trying to be sarcastic but if I could have a Facebook for my friends and family and another Facebook for professional contacts it would be great however I didn't want to risk getting locked out of my current account.

 

[Tarek]

How do you set up a second Facebook for professional use? My sister-in-law tried to set up another Facebook account and it locked her out of it because she already had one. My assumption from that is that it is tied into your name and date of birth but I could be wrong. I wasn't trying to be sarcastic but if I could have a Facebook for my friends and family and another Facebook for professional contacts it would be great however I didn't want to risk getting locked out of my current account.

I am sorry, it seems I misunderstood your last post. A couple of my friends have small, start-up businesses that they run from home and they use a different, professional account for them that is not in their name, but the 'company's'. At the same time I know people who have two different personal accounts that use the same name and date of birth and they either use both simultaneously or just one of them (the more recent one) while the other stays in tact, so the issue your sister-in-law faced is quite new to me. I'd suggest that she uses a company name or something like that if it's for a business or a start-up rather than her own name, but I'm not 100% certain about how things will go if you create another account in the same name. I don't want to be the reason for your current account getting locked out so don't take my words for granted.

 

[USAFA2008]

I am sorry, it seems I misunderstood your last post. A couple of my friends have small, start-up businesses that they run from home and they use a different, professional account for them that is not in their name, but the 'company's'. At the same time I know people who have two different personal accounts that use the same name and date of birth and they either use both simultaneously or just one of them (the more recent one) while the other stays in tact, so the issue your sister-in-law faced is quite new to me. I'd suggest that she uses a company name or something like that if it's for a business or a start-up rather than her own name, but I'm not 100% certain about how things will go if you create another account in the same name. I don't want to be the reason for your current account getting locked out so don't take my words for granted.

No worries. I will have to give that a try. I just looked and at the bottom it had an option to "Create a Page for a celebrity, band or business." The last time I looked I never saw that. If I get bored this weekend I will try it out and brand my professional account as a business.