Think Before You Post

Today, everything is searchable and public if you post it online. Rarely can you completely delete an image, status update, blog or tweet with 100% guarantee (or satisfaction) that it has actually been deleted from the Internet. A good motto for most is - do not post information online that could be detrimental if that information became publically available.

With the availability of so many social networking sites today like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn; employers, your peers and community partners can learn an abundance of information about you, even before you meet!

Social media stats and an article posted on SocialNomics.net, showed that 83% of employers and HR agencies are using or plan to use social media as part of their recruiting strategy in 2011.  Over 50% of Fortune 500 companies are using Facebook and Twitter, and more than 1.5 million pieces of content (web links, videos, news stories, blogs, photos etc.) are shared on Facebook every day.

Do these stats make you re-think or second guess the information that you’re posting online?

As a best practice, you should not only have a social media strategy at work, but a “sort-of” social media strategy for yourself too. Make sure you know who YOUR target audience is (friends, relatives and even employers) and post appropriate, newsworthy and interesting information for them.

I mean, that’s the reason why people follow or friend you online anyways, right?  They follow you to receive interesting and newsworthy information and links.

So if you’re ready to jump on the social media bandwagon, or maybe you already have, make sure you know who your audience is and take your parents advice to always “think before you post (speak)”.