You lost your job or you were not hired because of your activities on social media is a phrase that is both laughable and taunting. Truth is everybody loves social media. It is a free world! It would be a stretch of the truth to say otherwise. For starters, using social media brings to mind the old saying that internet technology has reduced the world to a global village. You can become friends with anyone and from any part of the globe. Think about Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, My Space, Snapchat, Pinterest and any other social media network and how they make this happen.  It is revolutionary but they can be very devastating at the same time!  Now, with all these explosive networking ideas and the extent to which they continue to shape the lives of everyone, it is noteworthy that corporate world is not left behind.

Social Media and Job Search

Millennials absolutely love it this way. If you live in this age of the internet and information but is yet to come across a job opportunity, let alone landing a lifetime opportunity on Facebook, then you probably belong to an older generation.  Companies have immensely tapped into the power of social media to make, sell and hire. But here is the catch. As a job seeker who perhaps wants to work as a writer with Assignmentgeek.com, does it work for you most of the times or every time you apply for a position via LinkedIn, it slips off your radar?

What could be hurting your social media job search?

Now, in the wake of all these excitements and job search via social networking platforms, it does not mean everything is easier when compared to real-world job application and interview situations.  Social media can be the greatest undoing to your job search and prospects of getting hired in as much they are platforms for fun, sharing and interacting. This article explores this in details.

• Posts replete with illegal activities

This has cost many opportunities for employment that may take years to feature again in their lives again.  Stories of teachers posing on social media holding bottles of beer and end up losing their jobs due to complaints from parents are not new.  But this is not the only scenario. You wouldn’t want to end up in crossfire with a prospective employer during a job interview when a question on about your illegal socials media activities such a photo of yourself holding a gun on Facebook hits you below the belt. And you can bet your life on it. Chances of getting hired dim when you start to bit about the bush about it.

• Offensive and mockery content

What is ‘considerably descent’ to you may be utterly offensive to others. And if you are a career person, your activities on social media can hound you into the interview room. While it is a space for free expression, offensive comments on religious and political matters may soon be a bitter taste in your mouth. What you deem as a simple comment may not be one after all.

• Poor language

Sometimes short forms such as ‘u’ for ‘you’ ‘xo’ for ‘so’ comes back like a boomerang on the verge of landing a hiring deal.  The corporate world can be intricate when you cannot expressly explain issues in good grammar. Now imagine a situation where you are having a conversation on social media using ‘texting language’ and it later dawns that the person on other end is a CEO of a company who hoped to hand you a deal.

In summary, social media is fun but it’s important to mind your language and behavior when posting anything on a platform like Facebook or Twitter.  One more thing, do not run the risk of plagiarising content on the web then post them as your own of social media.