Social Networking has slowly but surely become an integral part of our daily lives—whether it is for social, academic, or professional reasons. Students all over the country (or, if we want to get intimidating, the world) log on to sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to update their social status, their professional accolades or their vent of the day—only to have thousands of others on the receiving end of these actions. Despite its obvious (procrastinating) advantages, there are some drawbacks to such a liberal technological world, namely, the fact that a post, picture or status update can be seen by future employers, graduate schools and romantic interests for years to come (all of a sudden that drunken tweet you wrote freshman year might not have been one of your brightest ideas, huh?).
Recently, law schools all over the country have admitted that they plan to conduct “Facebook checks” on applicants to judge whether their moral character is up to scratch. While they don’t have the physical capacity to check every applicant, there is a definite possibility (according to Murphy’s Law), that yours would be the one they decided to check. Law schools, unfortunately, are not the only professional institutions that have decided to be candid about their Facebook stalking abilities. Businesses in almost every sphere of society have admitted to random internet checks on their employees or potential employees (Big Brother is clearly watching).
However, there are ways to lessen the damaging effects of the social-networking curse, and Her Campus Duke is ready to help. Look below for some handy tips when you’re applying for jobs, internships or just looking for a digital reputation cleanup.
1. Untag those crazy drunken pictures (that we know you have in some random album on your Facebook).
This is probably one of the simplest (and most obvious) recommendations. While the pictures won’t disappear from the ever-lasting memory of the Internet, it will make it harder for employers to find them (after all, who’s going to go through all your friend’s albums just to find that one picture of you with your eyes half closed, and a bottle of ‘crat in your hands, right?).
2. Change your name
This is one of those things that you see most seniors doing come interview time—they change their Facebook names from their original First name/Last name format to their First Name/Second name. This will make it more difficult for prospective employers to find you.
3. Watch your spelling!
Not only is it an insult to the English speaking world, but using “u” instead of “you” or “dats” instead of “that’s,” can potentially harm your digital reputation. Some companies have attributed bad grammar with poor communication skills and immaturity (now that I think about it, so have I).
4. Check your privacy settings
This is probably a good thing to do for safety reasons as well as professional ones (no one wants a late-night phone call from a dodgy stranger who managed to get your cell phone number off the internet). This can very easily be done, so I would highly recommend taking those two minutes out of your day to do it.
So there you have it, Her Campus Duke’s guide to a clean digital reputation. And hey, if you’re really serious about it (wow, there must be some damaging evidence on Facebook about you), there’s always Reputation Defender, which for $10 000… I uh, think I’ll just detag the pictures myself thanks.
Photo Source: http://degreesearch.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/facebook-border.gif
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Duke chapter.