Social Platforms and Job Applicants

To Delete or Not Delete

 

In Melissa's article Social Media and your Future she asked if we would recommend job applicants having a social media platform. I believe with social media being integrated into the way employers recruit and seek out job applicants as well as job applicants seeking out employment, having social media accounts is appropriate. If there is one platform I would recommend it would be LinkedIn, the site is set up for people and businesses to be represented in a professional manner. This media platform is geared towards professional networking, whether seeking out employment, recruiting, or simply making new connections.

However, if actively seeking a job I would suggest an applicant temporarily deactivate its pages if it doesn't represent what employers want to see or get familiar with the delete button. As we learned employers have various ways to check out a job applicant’s social activity and representation. Some of which include illegal practices. There are ways to protect social media accounts from employer invasion, but is never full proof. “Remember that whatever goes on a network might eventually be seen by people not in the intended audience. Think about whether you would want a stranger, your mother or a potential boss to see certain information or pictures” (Private Rights Clearinghouse, 2010). Once information is put on a social or web-based platform it is always available for others to find, even if it is deleted.

 

When actively seeking a employment here are some tips that can be used to protect social media accounts and employers from viewing your information (legally that is):

 

1. Make sure personal information is private (e.g. birthday, age, place of birth) if it is needed to create social media account. If the social platform does not need personal information to be activated, avoid using it (Private Rights Clearinghouse, 2010).
2. Review privacy policies before agreeing to them (Private Rights Clearinghouse, 2010).
3. “Provide only information that is necessary or that you feel comfortable providing.  Remember, you can always provide more information to a social network, but you can’t always remove information once it’s been posted” (Private Rights Clearinghouse, 2010).
4. Only add people you know and make sure viewing settings are on “friends only” (McGuire, 2016).
5. Be cautious of third party applications and shortened links(McGuire, 2016)
6. When actively seeking a job, ask friends and family to not tag you in those fun weekend photographs (McGuire, 2016).
    
   Those are just a handful of tips. The safest route is if you’re worried about your information getting in the wrong hands, don’t post it.
    
   As stated previously, social media has become integrated in the way company’s conduct business, recruit, and even the way people seek out employment. Just like job applicants want to check out a company online and its social media accounts to be sure it’s the right fit, companies want to do the same (McGuire, 2016). I do not think it is ethical to create fake accounts or use illegal means to view a job applicant social media platform. I also do not believe because a person likes to party or uses inappropriate language on social media that is a full representation of their skill set, professionalism, or who they are as a person. With social media being so largely integrated into companies and their policies it is understandable why companies want to see who would be representing them. However, a person’s social platforms shouldn’t be taken at face value. Just think about it, how many of us know people who are nothing like what their social media accounts claim them to be, good or bad?
    

References

McGuire, L. (September, 20 2016). Your social media matters when it comes to the job search. Retrieved from career.uconn.edu: https://career.uconn.edu/blog/2016/09/20/your-social-media-matters-when-it-comes-to-the-job-search/

Private Rights Clearing House. (2010, June 1). Social Networking Privacy: How to be Safe, Secure and Social. Retrieved from privacyrights.org: https://www.privacyrights.org/consumer-guides/social-networking-privacy-how-be-safe-secure-and-social#tips

 

 

 

 

Thinking Like the Cosumer

Stepping in Someone Else's Shoes

Part of this week’s readings focused on thinking like your consumers. As we all know it is important to know the audience we market to in the fields we specialize in. This helps with the type of language we use, who and how we market to them, and how we use social media to engage with our audience. What Kerpen discusses in chapter 3 of Likable Social Media is putting ourselves in the shoes of our consumers when engaging them through social media, if it’s something I wouldn’t like or pay attention too, it’s likely my audience won’t either. While Kerpen uses these tips directed toward Facebook, they can be utilized for most social media outlets such as Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and many more.

Don’t confuse content marketing with advertising

Bombarding your followers with constant post to visit your website or check out your new product is not content marketing, its advertising (DeMers, 2016). Content marketing is fun, entertaining, engaging, helpful, and customer focused. According to Kerpen, this can be a hard concept for marketers to learn because they have to unlearn much of what they know. “With content marketing, you’re actively building and solidifying a customer relationship” (DeMers, 2016).

Using social media accounts effectively

When preparing to use social media as a form of marketing it should be used as a form of engagement not disruption. This is when a marketer should put themselves in the place of the consumer. According to Kerpen (2015) these are the questions you should ask yourself before clicking the “post” button:

1.       Will the recipients of this message truly find it of value, or will they find it annoying and disruptive?

2.       Would I want to receive this message as a consumer?

If you respond yes, you’re on the right track, but if you respond no, then it’s worth reevaluating your message. The reason these questions are important is because we want the content we post to be shared and our followers to engage. “In the long run, the organizations that will win are the organizations that engage in positive, useful communications with their customers and prospects” (Kerpen, p. 41). Posts should engage, causing followers and prospects to comment, share, and like. This will naturally create brand awareness and start the buying process.

Making sure your post get seen

Here are the questions Kerpen (2015) list to ask yourself to maximize your post viewing and sharing.

1.       When and how often should I post content? Knowing when your audience is on social media sets the guidelines on when and how often content should be uploaded. If you’re targeting teens you wouldn’t post during school hours.

2.       Do these users interact with me often? It is important for users to visit your page because they are more likely to share it, subscribe or follow, and actually view its content.  

3.       How interactive are the engagement with the post? Making your content relevant and relatable causes users to engage. The more users like, comment, and share the post, the longer it stays relevant and more people see it.

4.       Have I boosted the post? Investing money in boosting your post can make it quickly seen by thousands of people. While this is not necessary it can help.

Theses questions are here to help guide you in making an interactive social media base. Understanding communication with your followers should be two-way communication. It is not solely up to the follower to initiate engagement, but the brand should be doing so as well. It is the responsibility of the brand to know its audience, know when and how to engage with them.

Who is doing this right?

In this article 10 Brands Doing an Amazing Job on Social Media shows how brands are using social media to engage users, create relevant content, and most importantly understand and know its audience, please view.

Discussion Questions:

1.       Do you agree with Kerpen, that a company’s social media page should be customer instead of brand focused? Explain.

2.       Find a company that could increase engagement and sharing on its social media sites by putting itself in the mind of the consumer. Explain what changes need to be made and why.  

References

DeMers, J. (2016, May 28). Product Marketing Vs Content Marketing: Which Is Better And Why? Retrieved from forbes.com: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2016/05/28/product-marketing-vs-content-marketing-which-is-better-and-why/#170e90064e7d

Kerpen, D. (2015). Likable Social Media (2nd ed.). McGraw-Hill.