Don’t Get Burned with Your Own Social Media Posts

Let’s face it: if you use a computer or a Smartphone, you probably use social media. Posting pictures of your vacation, your thoughts on politics, or even your dinner plans seems benign. But is it?

Time and again HR specialists and residency coordinators tell us when they Google potential candidates—which they all do—they mine TONS of “private” info. For example, one woman who applied for a job at a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company had posted pole dancing photos of herself on her Facebook page.

But that’s supposed to be private, right?

Not anymore. Even if you don’t share beyond your personal FB page, your friends might be sharing for you. The same is true of Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media sites.

How do you avoid mishaps? Here are a few suggestions for posting online:

1.  Don’t post anything you wouldn’t want your mother or a Wall St Journal reporter to see. If this tip sounds obvious, just remember the pole dancer. Our tip: write your post in a Word file and save it for tomorrow. Still want to post it? Then go for it.

2.  Become a resource. Share smart stuff, especially when it’s not your idea. The Internet is a researcher’s gold mine. When you find an interesting article that’s relevant to your colleagues, post it.

3.  Lift others up. Pass along kudos, articles, and information about others. Reposting your colleagues’ work successes such as job changes, articles published, and promotions will lead to reciprocation.

For more communication skills tips, please refer to the book, Listen. Write. Present. The Elements for Communicating Science and Technology (Yale Press, 2012).

Find us on FB for a collection of other relevant articles.

Top 5 Communication Tips

Book Signing Event at Hackney Library

Barton College, Wilson, NC

The book, Listen. Write. Present. contains over 245 communication tips. At a recent book signing at Barton College, we only had 30 minutes to speak, so we chose the most relevant tips for that audience. Now we’d like to share them with you:

1. Adapt to the audience. This tip applies to listening and responding when communicating with others, writing a cover letter, or presenting to a small group. What does your audience really want to know?

2. Narrow the focus of your topic. It can be hard to distill your content into one main point. Yet Twitter, texting, and common sense show us that others want only what’s relevant, not content overload.

3. Practice. Plan. Rehearse. Call it whatever you want...just make sure you do it! Practicing what you want to say prevents rambling, planning what you are going to write helps sort and prioritize information, and rehearsing a presentation takes away the jitters and helps you connect with your audience.

4. Give the punch line first. In anything you communicate, make sure you tell the listener, reader, or audience your main point BEFORE you offer supporting evidence or background information. For example, if you are pitching an idea to a group, plug the idea first, and then offer specific support: “I’d like to share three reasons why adopting ABC policy will benefit our group.”

5. Perfect your elevator pitch. This snapshot is the 30-second explanation of who you are or what you do or how you’ll fit into the organization. This skill is essential for effective job interviews.