As the new year arrives it is a great time to relook at your social media both reviewing recent posts and ensuring settings are set to protect you professionally. It is always important to be mindful of what you are posting on social media and a new year is a good time to do a quick check to make sure there isn’t anything on the internet that you don’t want there. While your social media is a reflection of you, it can also be seen by your employer. It’s important to consider both who can see what you are posting and what you are saying.
5 Essential Steps to Clean Up Your Social Media
Here are a few things to consider when it comes to social media.
1. Consider Your Social Media Platforms.
Different social media platforms have different purposes. Some social media platforms are focused on who you are and connecting you with friends and family. While others are focused on what it means to be a professional and the work you do in your career. Then there are social media platforms with the goal of entertainment. What you post and how you interact with others on each platform will often be different based on why you are on the platform be mindful of this when you are posting.
2. Clean Up Your Presence.
The start of a new year is a great time to review your social media platforms. It also a great time relook and remove old posts as needed. It is great to start by looking at your profile to see if there have been a recent changes. On career field related sites ensuring your resume is up to date is a great start. Make sure you have any new work experience added or remove any non-relevant work. If you are looking for a job and have’t updated your status change that. If you have moved positions in your company you can share that as well.
3. Check Your Security Settings.
Check to make sure the settings on who can see your profile and who can find you on social media is set the way you want it to be. Sometimes in updates changes can happen that you are not aware of so this is important to look at this setting regularly.
4. Review Past Posts.
Besides looking at your profile information you also can review past posts. Ensure that your feed is a reflection of you and what you want to say. It is okay to remove something you no longer agree with or just would rather not have attached to your digital footprint.
5. Monitor Your Digital Footprint.
Have you looked yourself up on a online search query recently? Looking for your digital footprint is important because then you will know what kind of information is on the internet about you. If you find something you do not want shared you can then follow up and ask it to be removed or if it is on your social media remove it yourself.
You can also set up alerts for your name, your company or other key words to get notified when a particular set of key words is discussed on the internet. Just know, these alerts do not catch everything.
Monitor Your Information
If you see something on the internet related to you do not be afraid to ask someone to remove it. Many times it is easy to work with the person to have the text or image removed.
Information about you on the internet is important to both monitor and curate. You never know when someone might use it to help determine if you are right for the next job, promotion or other opportunity. Taking these steps will help ensure your social media is working to help you both in your personal but also in your professional life.
