Social media is part of our everyday life. But should it be part of our professional lives as well? A new survey found that the vast majority of job seekers believe that social media regularly impacts hiring decisions, but only half believe employers should be allowed to look for a someone’s personal accounts. To push back, 82% of respondents say they enable privacy settings, and 4-in-10 go so far as to create alias accounts for just close friends and family. The thing most people want to hide is personal photos and videos, an additional 56% of people say they’re trying to hide potentially “unprofessional” posts or images that may be on their social media platforms.
While many are concerned about what their current and future employers may find in their digital footprint, others are taking steps to posture online. After getting their personal accounts squeaky clean, others are proactively liking industry-relevant pages and groups and posting career-focused content on their more professional social media accounts like LinkedIn.
