The interview is over. You think it went well.  You’re planning on buying a new car.  Your prospective employer, in the meantime,  is  checking Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networking sites to gain a 360 degree profile on who you really are and how your personality will fit in with the company. 

Hints to employer-proof your site: 

1. Make your profile and photo albums private to the public.  

Change your account settings to private, anybody in your alumni, work, or city network can click on your profile or photo album and see all of the contents on your Facebook page. Make your profile and photo albums private, and only allow your friends in your network see the contents of your page.  

How: Click on settings, privacy settings, profile, and change the settings so that only friends can see your page.  

2. Create separate “friends’ lists” and use the limited profile   

 Create separate “friends’ lists” for colleagues, and put your professional contacts on a limited profile view to control the content on your page they may have access to.  

How: Click on friends. Scroll to the bottom left side of your page, and click “create” to create a new friends’ list. You will then be prompted to select which contents on your page people on this list have access to. Conversely, you can add them on your “limited profile” list and also do the same.  

3. Disable your “View Pictures of Me”  

Disable your “view pictures of me” feature so that you can stay in control of which photos of you get posted online. 

How: Click on settings, privacy settings, profile, and change the “photos tagged of me” feature so that nobody can see photos tagged of you, including friends.  

4. Disable your “Wall”  

Disable your “wall” so that you can only receive inbox messages and keep your private life outside of work to yourself. 

How: Click on settings, privacy settings, profile, and unclick “friends may post to my wall.”  

 5. Use your common sense  

It takes years to build up your professional reputation, and only seconds to ruin it. Anything you post can be emailed or fowrded with just a click.   Review your social network page as a boss would.  Would you hire you? 

BNI Operatives: Street smart; Web savvy. 

As always, stay safe.

Filed under: General Information | Tagged: employer, facebook, fb, inerview, pics, profile, security | 2 Comments »