Imagine your employer taking pictures of you or listening into your conversations. Would you act differently, pose less seductively or talk a little more conservatively? As social media grows, more and more employers seem to be checking up on their future employees, so don’t let social media be your Achilles heel.

Before we begin take a look at some of these tweets and posts we found earlier today, would you ever express your feelings about work in such a manner?

• ‘I hate this stupid  job and this stupid new boss’
• ‘Can’t stand working with these people, everything takes twice as long!’
• ‘I hate my boss, no I will not go to work’

You never know who is watching, so tread carefully. First it was friends, then friends of friends and before you knew it, parents were bombarding social media.  Now it seems to be the employers turn to join the bandwagon. According to Amy Gladwell’s article on newsbeat ‘too many young people are risking their career opportunities because of what they post on social media networks’. After spending hours perfecting your CV and studying hard to get the perfect grades, you don’t want to let one negative post or tweet ruin your chances of getting your perfect job.

So how many employers do use social media? According to Huffingotn Post ‘91% of employers use LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook’, emphasising the fact that social media has become a large platform in the business world.  Furthermore, 11% of businesses ‘rejected potential employers for inappropriate pictures and negative comments about a previous employer’. It has become more important than ever to think about how you use social media. Remember that they are public sites so think before you post, tweet or comment and try to keep private things private as you never know who is checking up on your profile

This doesn’t mean that you have to stop using social media altogether though. If employers are having a nose online then they are going to see good things as well. So why not use it to your advantage? Get your potential employers to like you before they have even met you

Social media is there to have fun and network with the world, so although you don’t want to turn into a boring and politically correct tweeter or poster, it is a good idea to think before you act. Here are some guidelines to keep those public pages cleaner:

• Set your privacy settings appropriately: Simply press that settings button and go down to privacy settings.
• Keep the language clean: We can always get the bar of soap out if it helps.
• Keep the nudity for the bedroom: It would be quite embarrassing if you went into an interview and your employer had already seen more of you than they want.
• Try not to publically ridicule your employer. Imagine going onto Facebook and finding out someone had publically abused you…how would you feel?
• “What would your mum think?” If you don’t want your mum to see it then chances are you definitely don’t want your employer to see it.

If you are considering ridiculing your employer, colleagues or company then don’t do it via social media; tell your pet when you get home, buy a stress ball, or keep a very very secret diary (at home) and write up your rants there. You don’t want to lose a job or get sacked because of an inappropriate comment so be careful what you say.

Do you think employers should be allowed to look you up before you have ever met them? If you were an employer would you look up a potential employee? Comment below to let us know your thoughts, and if you have any tips or experiences that others could learn from then let us know. Has something you shared on social media ever prevented you from getting a job?