There’s a lot of discussion out there on how to try and hide on Facebook elements of your personal life from potential employers, using security settings and making sure you don’t post certain content on social media. However, there can be something gained from sharing certain elements of your personal life on social media platforms like Facebook. Part of establishing your personal brand includes taking account of your hobbies, experiences and travels.
If a potential employer clicks on your social media profile and sees that you’re a well-rounded, positive, friendly person, it will make you a more attractive candidate for a job. Think about this next time you decide to post photos online and limit who you share photos with. Publicizing parts of your personal life will give you more depth and could even lead to an important conversation in a job interview. What if you’ve been to the same Caribbean island as the person interviewing you? Or you two play the same sport? That’s information that could benefit you if it’s available publicly on your Facebook profile and couldn’t possibly cause you harm.
Facebook has made changing your privacy settings on your posts pretty simple. Whenever you decide to post something to your Facebook page you can choose to share the post with either Public (Anyone on or off Facebook), Friends (Your friends on Facebook) or Only Me (Just you!). So the photos, articles, videos and other content you decide to share as Public will be available to people like potential employers. Choose this for posts that will give an employer a sense of some of your hobbies and interests outside of or even related to your work.
Examples of things to post:
Travel photos
Photos of you participating in clubs and organizations
Posts relating to sports, exercise and well-being
Posts about literature, culture and art (Though maybe avoid comments mentioning how hard you’re binge watching a new series!)
Photos at cultural events like concerts, art galleries and restaurants
Photos with treasured celebrities or notable artists, intellectuals, athletes and musicians
Photos with current or previous coworkers or employers
Photos at university or intellectual events
Photos with family and friends
Posts about important milestones, like finishing your first marathon or winning a poetry contest
Things NOT to post:
Anything pertaining to drug or alcohol use
Photos of you partaking in a controversial political events
Overtly sexual photos
Photos showing too much skin
Anything racist or discriminatory
Content that is overtly partisan or reveals your political affiliations
Anything critical of your workplace or former employers
Whiny comments, or commentary that could be perceived as you feeling sorry for yourself
Photos of you using weaponry
Criticism of other people’s spiritual practices
Photo 1. based on Facebook, by Massimo Barbieri, CC-by-SA 2.0
Photo 2. based on 2014 New York City Marathon, by Steven Pisano, CC-by-2.0