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Your #Career : How To Tidy Up Your #DigitalFootprint Before Your First #JobSearch …You Can’t go Back in time and Not Post those Embarrassing Photos, But you Can Erase your Mistakes Before your Future #Boss #Googles You.

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When I graduated from college in 2000, social media didn’t really exist, and managers didn’t do Google background checks. I didn’t realize how easy I had it compared to today’s graduates.

“It isn’t at all uncommon for hiring managers to look at Facebook or Instagram to see what type of person the candidate is. You can gauge what someone’s like from an interview, but only to a certain extent,” says Callum Williams, a senior recruitment consultant at FRG Technology Consulting. “The attitude [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][the applicant] displays once they have the job could be entirely different, so social media can offer valuable insight at times.”

If you’re entering the workforce now, you were raised in an era where social media has been ubiquitous. Your posts from high school might come back to haunt you when a prospective employer searches your accounts.

Of course the best way to stop embarrassing posts from coming on to the radar of a prospective employer is not to post things that you wouldn’t want your boss to see in the first place. But if you’re reading this article, it’s clearly too late for that. So here are some steps you can take to reduce the chances that your past online activity and digital footprint will hurt your job prospects.

MAKE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS PRIVATE

As soon as you enter the professional realm, or enter the phase of looking for your first professional job, it’s time to privatize your social media profiles. Yes, it feels good to have hundreds or thousands of followers, even if you don’t know 90% of them, but is that dopamine high you get when you snag a new follower worth it if your public social media account stops you from getting a job?

Here’s how to make your Facebook profile private, make your Twitter profile private, and make your Instagram profile private.

 

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REVIEW YOUR TIMELINES

Of course, there are times when it’s beneficial to have public social media profiles when hunting for a job. This is especially true if you’re looking for a job in the media, where your social media profile can serve as an addendum to your resume.

But even if this is the case, you’ll still want to scan through all your social media posts and remove any photos or comments that could cast you in a negative light. Such posts include anything that makes you look petulant, nasty, or immature. Obviously get rid of “funny”/potentially embarrassing photos, and comments that could cause offense. As far as posts about politics go, it’s okay to stand by your political views, just don’t leave any posts up that demonize the other side simply because they disagree with your point of view.

CONTROL TAGGING

Of course, sometimes you can appear on social media despite not posting the content yourself. This often happens when our friends or family tag us in content they post. These tags with our names can often show up in Google searches, especially Google Image searches, as most tags are applied to photos.

“Be conscious of the things you are tagged in,” warns Williams. “Friends have a habit of tagging you in pictures and videos that you would rather not share with the world. Ask them to remove the tag or remove it yourself.”

Besides asking friends to untag you, most social media sites also give you the ability to disable other people from tagging you in the first place. Here’s how to control tagging on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

FIND AND CLOSE ANY OLD SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS

When we think of managing our social media profiles, we generally think of the current big three social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. However, chances are that many of us have digital footprints floating around online from other platforms that we’ve long since abandoned. I’m talking about old platforms like MySpace or Friendster or abandoned social media profiles on services like Google+, or from that time we created a Flickr account just to post our pics from that wild trip to Cancun.

You might not even remember how many abandoned social media accounts you have. To find them, Google your name to see what comes up (check past the first page of results) or try a service like Deseat.me, which aims to help you find all your forgotten online accounts. Any accounts you do find, either make them private or close them down completely.

Not sure if a certain post might hurt your job prospects?

“If in doubt about a historical social media post, consider the first impression it would give a stranger,” says Williams, “and be mindful that the standard of a hiring manager is higher than that.”

FastCompany.com | February 23, 2018 | BY MICHAEL GROTHAUS 3 MINUTE READ

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Your #Career : Here’s Why #Facebook is Bad for You & Your Career…You might Think you’ve Earned a Few Minutes on Facebook after Completing a Task or Getting Through a Meeting, but Taking Frequent Social Media Breaks Can Derail your Productivity.

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It probably happens before you even realize it. One minute you’re in the middle of a work project and the next, you’re mindlessly scrolling through your Facebook timeline, Twitter news feed, or even your LinkedIn connections to see if there’s a colleague you haven’t yet connected with. In some cases, you don’t even remember opening a new tab and navigating to the social media site, and there’s not even a new notification waiting for you because this is the second time in an hour you’ve done this. Not only should this habit be slightly concerning on a personal level, but it also has the potential to be a huge detriment to your professional goals. You might think you’ve earned a few minutes on Facebook after completing a task or getting through a meeting, but taking frequent social media breaks can derail your productivity.

Free- Business Desk

We’ve written before about the dangers of using social media too much, especially Facebook. Social media can distort your perceptions of your friends, affect your mood in ways you don’t even realize, and is even linked to an uptick in depressive tendencies. An article from Psych Central summarizes a number of studies that have expounded on this idea. Using social media too much can often have a negative effect on a person’s self-esteem, especially since people tend to only post the best aspects of their lives on social media. The excessive use of Facebook and other social media sites is also linked to an increase in anxiety and trouble sleeping. In other words, you tend to get uptight and on edge after staring at your news feed for too long, so it’s no wonder that it’s a bad idea to spend your work breaks on the sites.

 

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Social media’s ‘distracted norm’

Avoiding social media during the workday has made several lists about how to be more productive in the workplace, and it’s not just because they occasionally have negative effects. For some people, checking Facebook regularly won’t lead to negative feelings. But even if you’re immune to social media, checking social media throughout the day is still bound to be a professional pitfall.

There’s a new ‘distracted norm’ in almost every sphere of life now, including the workplace, writes Forbes contributor Frances Booth. The author has written extensively about digital distractions, particularly in the workplace, and has found that phones buzzing in pockets, the easy accessibility of email, and even the habit of surfing the Internet lead to decreased productivity at work, even if you’re doing your best to ignore those digital distractions while on the clock. In one article, Booth asks how long it typically takes for you to switch from a focused work task to a distraction — with email or Facebook the common culprits. Is it an hour? Thirty minutes? Or is it (more likely) quick bursts of 10 minutes or less?

The larger issue here, Booth argues, is that easy work tasks get accomplished within a few minutes. You can easily reply to one quick email, post on social media for work purposes, or something else that’s relatively simple. But more complex work issues either get pushed to the side, or take way longer than they should. “If a task is too difficult or too boring, instead of working through this and sticking with it, the easy answer is to turn to a distraction,” she writes.
Number of Active Social Media Users by Network | FindTheCompany//

The fear, in terms of work productivity, is that innovation and creativity requires deep thinking. This means you can’t be turning to a distraction every five minutes. You need to sit with a problem, think about it for yourself before turning to Google to answer it for you, and be willing to work through an issue for multiple hours at a time. A Facebook dependency won’t help you accomplish that. “Giving in to distraction produces half-formed thoughts, unoriginal thinking, and the same old arguments again and again,” Booth argues.

Facebook has more than 1.4 billion users worldwide, so it’s easy to make that site the bad guy in all of this. But it’s not the only platform that leads to distraction, and it makes up just a part of what behavior science expert James Clear refers to as “digital procrastination.” Clear, in an interview with Entrepreneur, says that digital procrastination is a productivity killer, but it also can negatively affect other decision-making long after the work day is finished.

Fighting social media = less willpower

The reason is because you likely know you shouldn’t be checking Facebook every half hour during the day, so you try to resist the pull of social media while at work. But you’re using up a lot of your willpower to do that, which means you’re vulnerable later in the day to try to resist other bad habits you’re trying to break, like smoking or eating that second piece of cake. “Willpower is like a muscle,” Clear explains. “Every time you use a little bit of it — to resist going to Facebook or BuzzFeed or whatever it is — you’re flexing that muscle. By the end of the day…your willpower fades.”

Entrepreneur suggests trying an app like Freedom, which blocks social media sites and other select websites during the work day (or whatever timeframe you set up for yourself) so that you have no choice but to stay on task. Freedom charges a fee to use its services, but others like Cold Turkey have free options. “It takes the decision making out of your hands,” Clear said.

While we’re on the topic of work breaks, though, keep in mind that research does show that more frequent breaks for smaller amounts of time does help productivity throughout your work day. One study found that productive people often work for 52 consecutive minutes, and then take a break for about 17. Those might be arbitrary numbers, but give it a try to see if a similar breakdown works for you. Just opt for a quick walk or a chat with a coworker instead of logging into Facebook to see whose birthday it is.

 

CheatSheet.com | March 3, 2016 | 

#Strategy: 50 Free Ways To Increase Your #Facebook Page Likes…This Article will Walk you Through 50 Effective & Free Ways to Increase your #Facebook Page Likes.

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There are now an estimated 40 million #Companies & Small Businesses using #Facebook to promote their brand and connect with their customers. If you’re managing marketing for one of these businesses, you already know how hard it is to attract new “#Likes” to your page.

But while it can be a challenge to increase your page likes, making the effort is undoubtedly worthwhile: one researcher has estimated the average value of a single Facebook fan at $174. While this number obviously varies depending on the business and industry, there’s no doubt that capturing the attention and loyalty of your target audience on Facebook is important.

Most marketers know how to increase Facebook page likes through Facebook’s paid ad platform, but there are plenty of ways to grow your likes without spending any money. This article will walk you through 50 effective and free ways to increase your Facebook page likes. Some of these strategies will focus on increasing your organic post reach – because the more your posts get liked and shared, the more your reach and visibility increase. And ultimately, this is what will lead to the organic growth of your page.

1. Use images as a regular part of your content strategy. Despite what you may have heard, captivating and relevant images can still be a great way to increase engagement and reach on your page and posts.

2. The most common reason people unlike a brand page is because their posts are uninteresting. Keep more of the fans you already have by posting engaging content that meets the needs of your audience. See “How to Write More Exciting Content for Your Industry.”

3. Use Facebook’s Page Plugin (formerly Like Box) on your website or blog. A like button next to your blog posts is great for getting your content shared, but the Page Plugin will help you boost your page likes.

 

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4. Engage with other pages in your niche. Regularly leave thoughtful comments in response to other people’s posts. Make sure you’re commenting as your page rather than from your personal profile.

5. Promote your page on your other social media accounts. A simple ‘Like us on Facebook’ is unlikely to work. However, occasionally pointing your Twitter followers or LinkedIn connections to discussions happening on your page just might.

6. Contests are still a great way to entice people to like your page. Promote your contest on your site and to your email list, and make liking your page a contest requirement.

7. Reference your Facebook page on your blog. Draw attention to an interesting discussion happening on your Facebook page by mentioning it in a blog post.

8. Post multiple images. Some research suggests posting albums (as opposed to single images) may lead to increased reach.

9. Keep your promotional content to a minimum. Some experts suggest 80/20 – Posting non-promotional content 80% of the time and promotional content 20% of the time. This number will vary depending on your business, so see what works best with your audience.

10. In the About section of your personal profile, link to your Facebook page as your place of employment.

11. Keep your posts short and sweet. Some research seems to suggest that shorter posts (those between 100-119 characters) may result in the highest engagement. Other research suggests keeping your character count to 40 characters or less for optimal engagement.
12. Offer an exclusive discount just for your Facebook fans. This is a great incentive to like your page; in fact, 42% of people say they like a brand page for the coupons and discounts.

13. Don’t be afraid to get personal from time to time. People want to know there’s a real person behind your company, and will be more likely to engage with a person than with a faceless brand.

14. Regularly visit your Facebook Insights to find out which content is working with your audience. Find the posts that have received the most engagement and highest reach, and share these types of content more often.

15. Target Facebook ads to users by interest. One of the most effective ways to use Facebook ads is to target users who already like pages in your niche. Using Facebook’s Graph Search, find out which pages your existing fans like by typing in, “Pages liked by people who like my page”. Target your ads to users who have liked these pages, as they’re likely to be interested in your page as well.

16. Optimize your Facebook page’s SEO (search engine optimization): Use relevant keywords in your title and About section; Make sure your profile is complete and contains a consistent NAP (name, address, phone number); Link to your page from your website and other web properties.

17. Create a topical Facebook group. Facebook groups can be a great way to reach prospects who are wary of liking a brand’s page. Create an industry-related group that your target market may be looking for, and then use it to build relationships and trust. While a group may not give you the “one to all” voice a page does, the level of engagement you can achieve in a group can be much higher than on a page.

18. Tag other pages in your posts. When you tag other pages, your posts appear on their wall and may spark the interest of those pages’ owners and fans.

19. Create and share your own infographics. Infographics are one of the most shared types of images. Create your own using a tool like Infogr.am.

20. Offer true value. If you’re posting content that fills a gap or meets a need for your fans, your posts will get liked and shared; and this increased engagement will naturally lead to increased likes for your page. Pay attention to conversations happening in your industry, and offer unique insights and commentary that add something to the discussion.

21. Leave thoughtful comments on popular blogs in your niche. Be sure to link to your Facebook page when asked for your URL.

22. On Facebook, videos now outperform photos in terms of reach. Now is the time to start incorporating video into your social content strategy.

23. Include a ‘Like us on Facebook’ link on the ‘thank you’ page of your site. Customers are more apt to like you when they’ve just made a purchase they’re excited about.

24. Arrange a partnership with a complimentary page in your niche. Agree to cross-promote posts to help build up each other’s audiences.

25. Join industry Facebook groups and offer thoughtful advice and insights. If people like what you have to say, there’s a good chance they’ll hover over your name to find out more about you. This is one reason why having your business name and Facebook page URL in your About section are so important!

26. Suggest your page to your email contacts. Send a brief email inviting your contacts to connect with your business on Facebook.

27. While hashtags may not work as well on Facebook as they do on Twitter, they can still be a good way to attract new fans. One of the best strategies is to use popular hashtags when posting about breaking news or other trending topics.
28. It seems like nearly everyone is taking advantage of popup boxes on their websites these days. Join the club, and set yours up so that it cycles between asking visitors to join your email list and like your Facebook page.

29. Add a link to your Facebook page in your email signature. It never hurts to let your connections know about another way they can connect with you.

30. Post regularly: Posting sporadically sends the message that you’re not serious about your page. If you want people to invest in your page, you need to establish a regular pattern of posting useful and relevant content.

31. Embed your Facebook video posts onto your website or blog. This is a great way to promote your Facebook page to your website visitors.

32. Put your Facebook page link on all your marketing materials: your business cards, pamphlets, signage and even on your print ads.

33. Ask your employees to like your page. The more likes your page accumulates, the more powerful your social proof.

34. Offer flash freebies on your page. Word gets around…if you regularly offer ‘flash freebies’ (e.g., “The first 5 people to message me will receive a $20 gift card”) you can bet your page likes will increase!

35. Submit your page to a fan page directory like Fan Page List. It’s unlikely to result in a ton of likes, but with such minimal effort involved, why not try?
36. Upload photos from live events, and ask your fans to tag themselves. This gets your photos in front of your fans’ friends, extending your visibility and reach.

37. Connect with group admins. Getting on the radar of the admins and moderators of popular Facebook groups can be invaluable. If they see you as an authoritative source of information in their industry, they may share your page with their members.

38. Make sure you’ve claimed a great vanity URL. A catchy URL will be more enticing and much easier to remember.

39. Make sure you have like buttons and share buttons next to all your blog posts. When people engage with your content by clicking these buttons, this action appears in their friends’ feeds, increasing your page’s visibility.

40. Participate in Follow Friday. Although it’s more common on Twitter, some pages regularly host a Follow Friday. Participating can be a great way to build your audience as well as other people’s.

41. Ask your fans to share photos on your page. These will appear in their friends’ feeds, increasing your visibility.

42. Make sure your page’s branding and design are professional and consistent. When people come to your page, it only takes them a split second to decide whether to like it or not; make sure your page accurately conveys your brand’s voice and image.

43. Use a WordPress plugin like WP-TopBar to show a “Like us on Facebook” message at the top of each page of your site.
44. Include a “Connect with us on Facebook” link on your website’s contact or help page to drive traffic to your Facebook page.

45. Include a link to your Facebook page in the author bio of your guest posts.

46. Make sure your cover photo includes a call to action to like your page.

47. Include your fan page URL on every image you share on Facebook. As your image gets shared, so does your page URL!

48. Periodically include an invitation to “connect with us on Facebook” in the P.S. of your email newsletters. Your P.S. can be an incredibly powerful place to put a call to action.

49. Enable Facebook commenting on your site. If you have a WordPress site, you can do this using a plugin like Facebook Comments. If not, you’ll have to enable Facebook commenting the hard way.

50. Make engagement a priority. Answer questions and respond to comments promptly. Your Facebook posts are a starting point for great discussions – not a final destination.

Final Thoughts

While likes are certainly an important metric, keep in mind that engagement is the true yardstick for Facebook page success. David Baser, Facebook Insights Product Manager, reminds marketers that increased engagement should be their top priority: “User engagement is the best proxy metric for the ultimate success of [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][your] brand page on Facebook. It’s great for understanding how much distribution you are getting in the news feed, how many people you are reaching with your messages…From a fundamental perspective, that’s the most important thing for marketers to take away.”

Remember that likes don’t mean anything without true engagement. Converting social media followers to customers should be the goal. Focus on regularly providing relevant and compelling content, and your page likes will undoubtedly increase organically over time.

What would you add to this list? What’s your best tip for increasing Facebook page likes? Share below!

 

Forbes.com | June 16, 2015 | Jayson DeMers

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