How to recruitment-proof your Social Media accounts

Did you know that 93% of hiring managers will review a candidate’s social media profile before making a hiring decision?

This means that it is more important than ever that your feeds are optimised for a potential employer to lay their eyes on.

Take a look at these tips to make sure your social media accounts aren’t putting off potential bosses:

1. Check your privacy settings

Most social media sites have some sophisticated privacy settings that allow you to hide certain posts away from public view.

Depending on if you have the time; you can edit each of your posts to make sure that they’re only visible to appropriate contacts – for example, only allowing your family and friends to see your holiday pictures or blocking your work colleagues from seeing your uploads from a crazy night out.

2. Optimise your LinkedIn page

Hiring managers look to LinkedIn as their first port of call for potential candidates. Many managers say that if their profile is impressive and up-to-date, they don’t feel the need to snoop any further.

Potential employers want to see an optimised LinkedIn page that shows you are a professional, not a page with crucial sections missing with little to no information available. This will encourage the employers to dig deeper and look for further insights about you.

3. Be careful of your language

We are all aware of some social media users who use the sites as a place to communicate their opinions on current events, which may often lead into some heated discussions. Don’t let that be you!

Yes, a small healthy debate is fine, but always remember to watch your language – make sure that you don’t use any derogatory or discriminatory language under any circumstances. Also avoid being vulgar and not forgetting pay high attention to your grammar.

This is particularly important if you are looking to be hired as a content writer or someone with a severe amount of communicating to do! Your potential employer will not be too impressed if your posts are riddled with grammatical errors!

Always keep this in the back of your mind:

55% of hiring managers have reconsidered a candidate based on what they find, with most (61%) of those double takes being negative

Why not also take a look at our previous post on the importance of an up-to-date CV, which could also be the beginning of the end of your hiring journey.

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