In her blog Shannon Wilson talks about how important it is for people to realise the negative aspects associated with social media. This is very true, the Internet is world wide and it is vital that one uses the utmost of caution when posting things online. Posting inappropriate messages or photos online could be detrimental to ones reputation and harm their future employment opportunities. You never knows when a tweet, Facebook post or photo from the past could come back to haunt you. Like Wilson says, anyone using social media should use the utmost caution. Figure 1 is a photo of a Facebook status someone posted insulting their boss and their job. Apparently this person had their boss as their Facebook friend and was fired over Facebook. This can serve as a reminder to us all to use caution when posting things on the Internet and to keep it professional at all times.
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| Figure 1. Fired on facebook. From Funny Facebook Pages by admin. 2010. Copyright 2010 by FunnyFacebookPages.com |
Despite the potentially negative aspects associated with social media there can be many positive aspects as well. Use of social media can provide users with the ability to give potential employers a positive, good review of them. A useful tool I
learned in Ales204 is making a web page all about you, for the purpose
of giving potential employers somewhere to look you up, and see who
you are and what you've done, in an environment you personally can
control and regulate.
Linkedin is another social media site that allows users to display their professional attributes online in a positive manner. It allows users to connect with business professionals in their field. This can be instrumental in allowing users to find jobs and develop business contacts. Facebook pages are yet another tool we covered in class that allows users to create a professional, positive and informative page of themselves online. According to an article by Johnny Russo 28% of Canadian employers use social networking sites to research job candidates, and 14% of employers report having been positively influenced by their research on social networking sites. This means that everyone has an opportunity to give potential employers a positive, professional impression without even meeting them. It is important to take advantage of these opportunities. Candidates for jobs can set themselves ahead and apart from the pack by having professional positive accounts of themselves online, accessible to potential employers.
Looking back at this course, the most important, reoccurring theme was how to use social media correctly, to ones own advantage. For some, social media may be just a way to waste time, but anyone who has taken Ales 204 realises that is can be so much more. Social media provides people with the opportunity to become informed of current events, to follow professionals in your areas of interest, to get in contact with professionals in your area, to network and to give people a positive impression of yourself.
Looking back at this course, the most important, reoccurring theme was how to use social media correctly, to ones own advantage. For some, social media may be just a way to waste time, but anyone who has taken Ales 204 realises that is can be so much more. Social media provides people with the opportunity to become informed of current events, to follow professionals in your areas of interest, to get in contact with professionals in your area, to network and to give people a positive impression of yourself.
References
Wilson, Shannon. (2012, March 12). Social media: it's not all fun and games. Retrieved April12, 2012 from
http://shan-wilson.blogspot.ca/2012/03/social-media-its-not-all-fun-and- games.html
Russo, J. (2012). Job-searching, social-networking Canadians. BC jobs online inc. Retrieved
April 12, 2012 from
It is extremely important to filter what you post on the internet, especially social media sites, because as Cassandra has shown in Figure 1, there are negative consquences to posting unprofessional and inappropriate things on the internet. Losing your job is quite an extreme, but there are plenty of other things that can happen.
ReplyDeleteLearning to use the internet correctly is important to be able to use it to your advantage; exploit it to promote yourself in a positive image so that potential employers want to hire you.
Really good post about showing the importance of how negative sites like Facebook can be if you don't be careful about what you are posting and where. Also, great image - really funny!
ReplyDelete