Social media can be a terrific help when you're looking for a job. It can also hurt. In this presentation for The Briefcase Project for F.E.G.S. in New York City, I outlined the pitfalls

1. Social Media
and the Job Hunt
Amy Vernon
GM, Social Marketing
Internet Media Labs

3. Source: Jobvite Social Recruiting Survey

4. Everybody’s Doing It
• LinkedIn has 225 million registered users
• Executives from all 2012 Fortune 500
companies are members
• LinkedIn members did more than 5.7 billion
professionally oriented searches on the
platform in 2012.
• More than 2.9 million companies have
LinkedIn Company Pages.
Source: LinkedIn

5. The cardinal rule

6. What does that mean?
• Assume everything you do online – even in a
“private” email – is public.
• Conduct yourself accordingly.
• No drunk photos.
• No cursing.
• Proofread.
• If you’re not sure if you should post it, don’t.

7. Source: Jobvite Social Recruiting Survey

8. Social Media Can Hurt You
Source: onDevice research, via Trackur

9. What you should do
• Tell your career story
• Fill out your profile completely
• Use a quality photo (i.e., not blurry, not cut
out from a larger photo)
• Use keywords – think Search.
• Join groups and network

13. The Platform Makes the Difference
• LinkedIn: For business only. Don’t be cute.
Don’t share cat videos. Spelling counts.
• Facebook: Feel free to share cat videos. Don’t
post drunk photos. Spelling doesn’t count as
much, but don’t post gibberish.
• Twitter: Spelling counts, but space-saving
abbreviations are OK.

14. Source: Jobvite Social Recruiting Survey

15. Every Social Profile Counts
Of employers who look up candidates’ social
profiles:
• 65% said they do it to see if the job seeker
presents himself or herself professionally
• 51% want to know if the candidate is a good
fit for the company culture
• 45% want to learn more about the candidate’s
qualifications

16. • 34% said they have found content that has
caused them not to hire the candidate.
– Half of those said that was due provocative or
inappropriate photos and/or information
– 45% cited evidence of drinking and/or drug
– Other reasons: displaying poor communication
skills, bad-mouthing previous employers, making
discriminatory comments related to race, gender,
or religion, or lying about qualifications.

17. Source: Jobvite Social Recruiting Survey

18. Email: Be Professional
• Gmail is preferable to Yahoo, Excite or Hotmail.
• Whatever domain you use, don’t be cutesy in your address.
• Good: amyjillvernon@gmail.com. Not good:
fungirl@gmail.com
• Your own email address (i.e., not shared with a partner –
paulandjane@yahoo.com )
• Don’t put lots of numbers in your address.
amybug98@yahoo.com allisonsmith20345@hotmail.com
• Avoid the spam filter: “many email filters are set up to look
for numbers, underscores, and superlative adjectives.
angela_coopersmith1980@gmail.com.
Partial source: Consultant Journal Photo by comedy_nosevia Flickr Creative Commons

19. Questions?
• Amy Vernon
• mail@amyvernon.net
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/amyvernon
• LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/amyvernon
• Facebook: http://facebook.com/amyvernon