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I'm not very active on social media. I have only a Facebook account and none of the other like Twitter or Instagram. I use it mainly to look at what other people get up to in my own time and hardly post anything about myself or my activities. I have also set my account up so that almost none of my info shows up to people who are not friends.

EDIT: The question is directed purely at how employers might use your social media activity to filter candidates. Lets say a person is in a public facing position and posted videos and so on of their extra curricular activities (wild or not), would that actually make a difference in they way they are viewed by possible employers vs someone who posts virtually nothing on their social media accounts.

Some might say one indicates a good social standing while the other might indicate you might be unsocial.

Does your activity (or lack thereof) on social media have an effect on your perceived employability in a public facing position?

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  • If you do not provide additional details about the targeted job(s), your question risks to be closed, as being to broad.
    – virolino
    Commented Mar 13, 2019 at 12:28
  • @virolino Question updated.
    – JustSaying
    Commented Mar 13, 2019 at 13:42
  • @JustSaying I changed anti-social to unsocial . I guess that's what you meant, feel free to edit if I'm wrong.
    – Sourav Ghosh
    Commented Mar 13, 2019 at 14:19

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No, it does not (unless you're in PR business where having the activity in social media is a "criteria").

Your social media is usually part of your personal life, which is best kept separate from you official one. So, your activity (or lack thereof) has no impact on your employability.

After the question Edit: Please re-read the above paragraph. You'll not be hired for "socializing". If you can communicate efficiently, that's more than enough for most of the cases.

Personally speaking, I have a large family and a larger group of friends, me and my wife socialize them with pretty often but that does not mean I post photos or status update on social media. I have a knack for photography, so some photos make it to Instagram / twitter, but I can confirm, no frequent than once/twice a year.

However, one point to mention, using social media networks or other forums which are meant for professionals and job search, (like StackOverflow careers, LinkedIn etc.) can have a positive effect on staying up to date about the offers and job postings, however, that does not mean you have to be ""active", you can be a passive researcher and only use the platform to connect to potential employers.

Remember, this will only help you in awareness / info about jobs/open positions. It's likely to have minimal to no impact in the interview and hiring process, though.

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  • I'd advise against racist rants on facebook though. Those will come back to bite you.
    – Borgh
    Commented Mar 13, 2019 at 9:52
  • @Borgh It's not about the usage policy, it's lack of activity - both are not quite same in my view. What do you say?
    – Sourav Ghosh
    Commented Mar 13, 2019 at 10:39
  • I known people who are PR managers at my last company who do not have any social media presence. So I don't think it is a requirement that you be a social media star to have PR. Perhaps for a smaller company who want to promote their brand and need to use someone who has a large social media presence.
    – Dan
    Commented Mar 13, 2019 at 17:59
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Depends on the employer. It can have an adverse effect if they check your online profile(s) and find a lot of negativity and bad stuff, or even just things that they don't agree with, e.g. political views. Even non-PR/marketing colleagues will probably go searching.

I generally only post to stack exchange sites, and don't use social media at all, although that's mainly through lack of time/interest and than any real dislike. I find this (lack of activity) has no effect, although I would probably suffer if I switched off LinkedIn.

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Yes. I'm in a very public-facing position. I tend to friend people in the community I've never met, simply because of my position. In a job application process, oftentimes the first thing the employer does is check social media. In the job itself, people will look at my FB page to see me, and what I'm about.

I NEVER share political stuff on my FB account for that reason. Just not worth doing. It may not be wrong, but it is divisive. I make heavy use of the security features of FB, and different privacy settings. I have posts that are public, and some that are specific friends only, based on a group, or geographical location. I'd suggest locking your stuff down and removing some public stuff that might cause an issue. I also have a couple of anonymous accounts without personal info on them. If you're concerned about it, do that.

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The less access companies has to your private life, the better. Expose only what you want them to see. For example, in many countries you do not have to state gender, marital status and other personal information, as these can be used to discriminate against you, although should not be taken into account while hiring. If you submit an application hiding these things, and yet have a Facebook profile which exposes everything to strangers, it basically is useless to hide this information in the first place.

Another example: You get tagged in an embarrassing video from college, where you did something very questionable at a party or so. You miss this, but the employer sees this when screening your social media.

I would say that exposing participation on forums like Stack Exchange might help, and Facebook, Instagram or similar are neutral at best, unless you post a lot of personal projects or something relevant to possible employer.

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I agree with the poster above. LinkedIn can be a good tool and many employers are now asking you apply with your LinkedIn profiles and some career websites advise adding it to your resume. I think the thing that really counts on LinkedIn is the number of connections you have. So you don't have to post content all the time, but do create your network.

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