Thanks to author and interactive marketing expert Dave Peck, I got to see a Jan. 16 San Jose Mercury News article titled: Those Facebook Posts Could Cost You a Job. Quoting a ream of statistics from different sources and studies, the article acknowledges that many — too many — people still don’t realize that potential employers increasingly check out candidates’ social network profiles as part of their hiring process. Privacy advocates object, law suits pend, but the reality is what we do on social networks isn’t necessarily private despite strengthened privacy settings.
I’m only sympathetic to a point. Yes, people should be able to share pictures and comments and such with their inner circle using available technology, and no, subterfuge (it seems some investigators used by companies to check out candidates use pretty unscrupulous methods to penetrate candidates’ inner circles to check them out) is not acceptable. But that’s where my sympathy stops. Three reasons for that:
1) This subject gets discussed a fair amount; it shouldn’t really be breaking news to anyone by now. Facebook even warns Facebook users about privacy and sharing.
2) One privacy advocate compared searching a candidate’s social network postings to asking to read a candidate’s personal diary and called it an infringement on free speech. It’s not a personal diary. People don’t open social network accounts to keep a personal diary. Few do it to keep in touch with a tight circle of friends or family members. No one actually has hundreds of close personal friends. And where’s the free speech connection? No one’s saying people can’t post what they want. They’re just acknowledging there are consequences. Just like there could be consequences of my standing on the corner of 1st & Pine trying to convince people to care about what I care about. Someone who knows me and disagrees with my position could be in the crowd going by and could decide they’ll never do business with me again. We’d both be well within our rights.
One example cited by a source was a person wearing a blatantly racist tee-shirt in a photograph posted online. That the person would be willing to wear the shirt under any circumstance, much less be photographed wearing it, says a lot about that person — about both their attitudes and awareness.
3) But most important from my vantage point is that each of us is responsible for managing our personal reputations — our personal brands — everywhere and that includes online. And it’s a concept we should be introducing kids to when they’re young, before they do really stupid things online that would damage their brand.
It’s like the guy I saw quoted on the local news this week as Olympia, Wash., was being buried under a foot of snow. “A little common sense goes a long way, people.” I have no idea who he was, but I love his quote! The same applies online. A little common sense goes a long way.
More analogous than the diary thing to me is this question: What would you be willing to share with your family or friends where strangers could overhear all or part of your conversation or catch a glimpse of the photo you’re sharing? You may intend to only share the information with a select few, but if you stop and think about it a nanosecond, you realize you’ve got an unintended audience and if you’ve got any common sense, you censor the sharing accordingly. You never know who might be within earshot.
A little common sense goes a long way, people.
