I have seen a lot on social media links especially Facebook over the past couple years and thought I would chime in with my 2 cents. Be careful about your social media posts. We have a tendency to combine work friends, family and personal friends on our posts and this is a dangerous thing. Why?
All of us have our own opinions on religion and politics and just certain people in general. Some of us are very vocal about it on social media. I see posts about gossip, bashing of certain groups, people, races, sexual preference, whatever. We also post wonderful photos of ourselves or others in some of the most unusual circumstances. We have the right to our opinion and our beliefs because this is America. We have freedom of speech, right? Yes, but please don't do it. The world and how we all relate to it has changed.
People are going to form an opinion about you based on what you post. If you post something for a close friend or family member and a potential employer sees it and gets offended (photo or different viewpoint than yours) they are probably not going to hire you. If you are a constant downer, always negative or hateful, its the same thing. People want to see positive happy neutral stuff. Nope - that's not the reality of life, but it IS the truth of the world of social media. You are putting yourself out there - change the way you post. If you want to stay hire-able in your field, refrain from posting the other stuff. Send a private message to someone, email them or pick up the phone.
We used to just add people to Facebook and other sites that we knew well, and that understood us well, but now many of us use it for networking and don't really know everyone on our social networks all that well.
I have my personal religious and political beliefs just like you do, but I never EVER post anything about them. I keep most of my posts happy and upbeat. The negative stuff? I just don't post it most of the time and if I do, its for a very limited time, and its just usually stuff about having a bad day or something.
Here is what happens. You apply for a job, or a gig or whatever and that person looks at your social media posts and sees something negative you have posted where they have a different opinion or it just hits them the wrong way - guess what? You don't get the job. People will also form opinions about you that may not be fair, but they will. I have looked at some of my friends posts and ended up "hiding them from my feed" because I didn't want to see the posts. Or maybe they post 100 times a day - noone wants to see that either.
I am not saying you have to pretend your from Pleasantville, or be a total drone, but just think twice before you post. Ask yourself, " Is it ok for everyone I want to do business with to see this?"
If you still want to do it, here is my suggestion, because I do this: For Facebook, put everyone in "categories". When you post, you can choose who (what category) sees the posts. So, when I post photos of my cats, or family stuff, etc. many times I will post it to "Friends" or "Family", EXCEPT "Film Friends" Or if I don't want to bore my family with my IMDb and blog posts, I will make the post view-able to "Film Friends" only. This way, you can control who sees what, and you can see talk and post as freely as you like without the risk of losing work or offending the wrong people.
I did a little research, and I am not the only one with this opinion. A few links I found with more info:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9240493/What_Facebook_posts_will_keep_you_from_getting_hired
http://company.findlaw.com/press-center/2013/tips-for-managing-your-career-on-social-media.html
http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20131011152603-2434720-world-s-greatest-social-media-advice
Just my 2 cents - keep it classy and lets all get working together!
PS - I deleted my Twitter account recently, so I left it off the below links this time. Just TOO much social media for one gal! :)
https://www.facebook.com/DebbieJenningsActor
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4824944/
http://debbiejennings.biz/
