Friend or Foe?

As time goes on it seems that our lives become more revolved around what we do online. This is how people know us and know how we are, is by what we put on social media. It acts as a window that people can peer into what sometimes should be personal is no longer personal thanks to social media networks. The question of late is should companies also be peering into those windows of their employees or prospective employees?

With more employers looking into social media of their employees should peole stay true to what they want to post regardless of losing a potential job or keep it clean 100% of the time?

Graduating in May I find myself having these conversation repeatedly as transition from a college student to a career woman.

Being young and in a in between stage I understand both sides of the argument. Companies and management want to protect themselves and keep a positive image. However, on the flip side if a candidate is being looked at solely on their social media it could be considered discrimination – employers must make sure that its not but only based on business practices and nothing else.

Since this is becoming more common among employers I would suggest candidates and employees take it with a grain of salt and it’s always to be perceived as a “clean” person than a person who post things in bad light or illegal.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/should-companies-monitor-their-employees-social-media-1399648685

3 thoughts on “Friend or Foe?

  1. jackshepherd787 says:

    I never would have guessed when I was growing up that what we do online would have such a significant impact on future opportunities. I feel like our field of study requires us to post online often, but its daunting to know that a tweet could be misinterpreted, and somehow hurt our reputations. Do you ever feel this way as well?

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  2. mdelarosa93 says:

    This is such a good post! I definitely think that social media is something that is becoming more and more prevalent in our society! As the years go by it will grow even more. I think it is very important to have a professional social media presence because that is how the public views you. If you don’t have a positive image online you can reflect badly on your company.

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  3. NatashaLina says:

    Paige,

    This post is exactly what I’ve been dealing with since switching to the PR major. Like Jack said, our field is social media crazed. I want to be professional online, but I also want to talk about the strange conversation I overheard at Starbucks! It’s so hard to find a nice balance. Now that you’ve graduated, are you thinking about separating your personal and professional by creating different platforms?

    -Natasha

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