Question

Social media allows individuals, companies and organizations to share and exchange information, ideas, videos pictures and even career interest. How many of you have a Facebook account? With everyone sharing private and professional ideas and opinions, how do you think this affects employer's hiring decisions? Should employers use Social Media as a hiring tool? How can you protect yourself against negative social media?

Answer 1

1. Most of the class has a faceFace account. Some may not be actively using it because of other social platforms like Snapchat and Instagram but atleasat 99% of the class has an account.

2. While there is a lot of personal content which gets shared about individuals, employers should not let this be a way to assess an individuals capabilities or personalities because all that you see on Facebook may not be true about an individual. Employers should rather use this as a key hiring tool. Details in the next answer.

3. Social media can serve as a very effective tool for employer branding. The target young workforce is today on social media and using this as a key platform to spread a message about great things the company is doing as an employer. It can also be used to start online campaigns to have a very engaged audience ex University campus connects. For wide spread, recruiters can also use this platform to seek applications for various positions. The pool received by such means will be diverse and large owing to the reach if social media.

4. Social media also has a negative side to it. To save yourself from it one should shared only desired information, set adequate privacy settings on posts and never share passwords to any of your accounts. Do not trust strangers you meet online and share any personal information. Also, a lot of youngesters get into depression/ feel pressured looking at ''perfect" life of other people on social media. To stop yourself from falling into this trap remember to take social media with a pinch of salt. Remember that the posts you see have been crafted arter a lot of retakes and edits and it's all Virtual.