This document discusses how social media profiles can affect applications for jobs and university admissions. It notes that 31% of college admissions officers and 52% of employers check applicants' social media profiles. Content found online can negatively impact applications if it shows unprofessional behavior. While deleting posts may seem to remove the content, it still persists in backups. The document advises maintaining a clean social media profile by avoiding anything you wouldn't want your mother to see and keeping personal and professional accounts separate.

1. Photo by: Timothée Mägli
T H I N K B E F O R E Y O U
P O S T How social media
effects your application
By:Kennedy
Bouchard

2. Not paying attention to what you post online can
negatively effect your application for a job or university
Photo by: Wilfred Iven

3. Do potential admissions officers or employers
really look at what you post online?
I S I T T R U E ?

4. 31% out of 381 college admissions officers said they
had visited an applicant’s Facebook or other personal
social media page to learn more about them (1)
Photo by: Wilfred Iven

5. An additional 30% of the admissions officers said they had
found information that affected the applicant negatively (1)
Photo by: Wilfred Iven

6. “According to CareerBuilder’s annual social media recruitment study, the number of
employers taking to the web to research applicants has steadily risen over the past few years
— from 39 percent of employers in 2013 to 43 percent last year to this year’s 52 percent.” (2)
Photo by: Wilfred Iven

7. Has social media changed from online communication to
an addition to your résumé?
H O W D O E S I T A F F E C T U S ?

8. People don’t recognize that
social media is no longer
personal communication tools, or
a means of strengthening weak
ties across their networks.
Instead, they are the criteria by
which you will be evaluated in
the future. (3)
Photo by: Toni Hukkanen

9. Does the delete button truly remove what we’ve
posted?
C A N I T B E R E M O V E D ?

10. “The Internet records everything
and forgets nothing — where
every online photo, status
update, Twitter post and blog
entry by and about us can be
stored forever”(4)
Photo taken from: Startup Stock Photos

11. Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page described in their original Stanford
research paper, the web is “a vast collection of completely uncontrolled
heterogeneous documents” (5)
Photo by: Caio Resende

12. “When you delete IP content, it is deleted in a manner similar to emptying the recycle
bin on a computer,” the Terms and Conditions page states. “However, you
understand that removed content may persist in backup copies for a reasonable
period of time”(6)
R E A D M O R E : H T T P : / / W W W . D I G I T A L T R E N D S . C O M / S O C I A L -
M E D I A / D E L E T I N G - F A C E B O O K - P O S T S - F A I L / # I X Z Z 4 A G Z Q C S R Y
F O L L O W U S : @ D I G I T A L T R E N D S O N T W I T T E R |
D I G I T A L T R E N D S F T W O N F A C E B O O K
Even Facebook admits that your content is actually still there even if you’ve technically deleted it
Photo by: Wilfred Iven

13. Why do employers check social media in the first
place?
W H A T D O T H E Y L O O K A T ?

14. It is used to check for 3 qualifications:
- Your personality
- You are who you say you are
- You provide a professional
image (9)
Photo by: Marcin Milewski

15. “An employee who displays his depth of knowledge and interest on his public profile
might increase his chances of getting hired. A true passion on a certain subject will be
apparent even on a public profile and if the blogs and pictures support it, then that
further increases the credibility of his skill.”
It’s not just used for access to your social life
Photo by: Fabian Irsara

16. “One third (33 percent) of employers who research candidates on social networking sites
say they’ve found content that made them more likely to hire a candidate. What’s more,
nearly a quarter (23 percent) found content that directly led to them hiring the candidate” (8)
It’s not always hurting us
Photo by: Monoar Rahman

17. Follow the Mother Test
H O W T O M A K E K E E P A C L E A N S O C I A L P R O F I L E :

18. “If you wouldn’t want your mother to see it,
don’t post it. Inappropriate photos and foul
language can all be red flags for
employers.” (10)
Photo by: Daria Nepriakhina

19. “Keep your personal and professional links separate, and
monitor your privacy settings” (10)

20. T H E E N D .

21. W O R K S C I T E D
1. Singer, Natasha. "They Loved Your G.P.A. Then They Saw Your Tweets." The New York Times. The New York Times, 09
Nov. 2013. Web. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/business/they-loved-your-gpa-then-they-saw-your-tweets.html?_r=0>.
2. Tarpey, Matt. "More Employers Checking Out Candidates on Social Media -." N.p., 14 May 2015. Web.
<http://thehiringsite.careerbuilder.com/2015/05/14/employers-checking-candidates-social-media/>.
3. Clark, Dorie. "It's Not a Job Search, It's a Permanent Campaign." Harvard Business Review. N.p., 28 Mar. 2012. Web.
<https://hbr.org/2012/03/its-not-a-job-search-its-a-p/>.
4. Rosen, Jeffrey. "The Web Means the End of Forgetting." The New York Times. The New York Times, 24 July 2010. Web.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/magazine/25privacy-t2.html?pagewanted=all>.
5. Powles, Julia, and Enrique Chaparro. "How Google Determined Our Right to Be Forgotten." The Guardian. Guardian News
and Media, 18 Feb. 2015. Web. <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/18/the-right-be-forgotten-google-search>.
6. Bea, Francis. "Turns out ‘delete’ Doesn’t Quite Mean the Same Thing to Facebook as It Does to You." Digital Trends. N.p., 02
July 2013. Web. <http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/deleting-facebook-posts-fail/#:bEzw1EY0NjFW-A>.
7. "Should Employers Check Facebook Before Making a Hire?" RecruitLoop Blog. N.p., 11 July 2011. Web.
<http://recruitloop.com/blog/should-employers-check-facebook-before-making-a-hire/>.
8. "Number of Employers Passing on Applicants Due to Social Media Posts Continues to Rise, According to New CareerBuilder
Survey." - CareerBuilder. N.p., 26 June 2014. Web.
<http://www.careerbuilder.ca/share/aboutus/pressreleasesdetail.aspx?sd=6%2F26%2F2014&id=pr829&ed=12%2F31%2F201
4>.
9. Morgan, Hannah. "10 Reasons Job Seekers Should Embrace Social Media." US News RSS. N.p., 10 Sept. 2014. Web.
<http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2014/09/10/10-reasons-job-seekers-should-embrace-social-
media>.
10.Bowness, Suzanne. "Five Ways to Be a Smart Social Media User in Your Job Hunt." The Globe and Mail. N.p., 10 Jan. 2013.
Web. <http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/career-advice/five-ways-to-be-a-smart-social-media-user-
in-your-job-hunt/article7195188/>.