Knowing how to clean up your social media profile and social presence might as well be a superpower. It can literally help you change your employment status. The reality is that many job seekers have no idea that employers Google them before reaching out for an interview. These individuals should know that most employers look at a candidate’s social media profile and social presence right after reviewing his or her resume. The only logical way to respond to this fact is to clean up your social media profile and social presence. This simple action will drastically increase your chances of being hired.
Stop What You’re Doing and Clean Up Your Social Media Profile!
Would you want a recruiter to look at your Facebook profile as it is at this moment? If the answer is “no” or “HECK no,” you’ve got some work to do. An easy fix for a not-so-professional social media profile is an app called SimpleWash.
“Basically, (SimpleWash) scans all the content on your Facebook profile—including comments by other people on photos or posts—and detects key words that might be associated with things you don’t want a potential employer seeing (drugs, alcohol, profanities, and the like),” wrote The Muse’s Erin Greewald. “You can browse through all of the flagged content, click on anything you want to remove, and be transferred directly to the post on Facebook, where you can delete or hide it.”
This process doesn’t take much time but can make the difference between getting a great job or remaining unemployed.
Your Social Presence Matters to Potential Employers
Once you get your social media profile cleaned it, it’s time to spruce up your general social presence (i.e., who you are according to Google). To do this, Natalie Severt, Resume Expert at Upwork, recommends running your name through a variety of search engines (including Google images) and seeing what you find. She encouraged job seekers to log out of their Google accounts or else the search results will be personalized based on their account activity.
Severt said that if you find anything disturbing, such as images of you drunk or high, you may ask Google to remove the content. If Google is unable to do so, it is because it does not own the photo. In that case, the site’s webmaster can remove the page that the image is attached to. Read more about this here.
“Once you finish checking Google, check your online presence on other search engines. Most have take-down request forms,” wrote Severt.
No quality employer will want to touch a candidate with an offensive social presence or Facebook profile. It’s difficult to say how many qualified job candidates have been overlooked because their social presence was unacceptable. Don’t let this happen to you.
Your Social Presence Should Communicate Good Things About You
Cleaning up your social media profile and general social presence is essential to getting hired. Think for a moment about what type of life and job you want. After that, make your social media profile and social presence communicate to employers that you belong in that position. In the future, you’ll be so glad you did.
Share this Post