As students scrambled to ready their resumes, personal appearance and interview techniques for the Career Fair Wednesday, they may have overlooked an important aspect of the overall presentation to a potential employer. According to a survey conducted by CareerBuilder in June of 2009, 45 percent of employers are using social media to screen potential employees, with another 11 percent planning to start. Students should be aware that their Facebook account or online presence might be a factor in whether or not they land a job for which they are interviewing.  Don’t make the mistake and think employers won’t be using everything at their disposal to ensure they pick the most qualified and professional candidate for the job.  You will be fooling only yourself.

Professional presence has been stressed on campus over the past few weeks with two seminars on the subject being presented. Ms. Anna Bass, instructor of management for the College of Business, stressed the importance of Professional Presence online or “netiquette” during the seminar. She also stressed how professional presence can be a competitive edge that sets you apart from your competition.

“Few books have been written to date on the subject of electronic etiquette, or netiquette as it is known,” said Bass. “The reason for this scarcity is that netiquette is a relatively new field that is evolving day by day.”

With an unemployment rate of over nine percent and many near-retirement age employees holding onto their jobs, newly minted college graduates are facing an even tougher time becoming gainfully employed.  Those students certainly don’t need a thing like social media getting in the way of landing that first job.  

So what should you avoid on Facebook and other social media sites?

While there may not be any hard, fast rules regarding social media and acceptable content, there are things you should avoid as well as things you should promote on your Facebook profile to help you land your dream job.

First, always assume that everything, and I mean everything, you post will be public knowledge and will be available to a potential employer.  Stay away from slanderous comments about your current employers, teachers or even strangers.  Avoid risqué pictures that portray less than professional behavior as well as excessive alcohol use. Be sure that pictures and videos you post or have been tagged in are of good taste and do not contain anything that could possibly be construed as offensive material.  Discriminatory comments as well as negative babble on Facebook and twitter can be a turn off to employers as well. Last, but certainly not least, be sure that your posts show off superior communication skills and do not contain text message language.  Great communication skills are one of the top sought after skills in job candidates.  Show them off!

So, now that your Facebook is cleaned up and ready for even your grandmother to read, how do you go about making it even more attractive to employers?  

Think of this portion the same way you would think about selling a product.  After all, you are selling yourself!  

Use your Facebook profile to display a positive attitude and display your interests that you wouldn’t mind bringing up in an interview.  Be sure that your profile picture gives a positive first impression.

Be aware that hiring you is a huge risk a business takes.  They will do everything in their power to minimize the risk to themselves as well as their business.  Using Facebook and social media to weed out candidates is by far a new minimum in business practices.  HR personnel may use your profile to judge if your personality will be a good “fit” with the company.  Be sure to market yourself appropriately.  

Using social media will certainly only get more important to employers with firms like Social Intelligence coming onto the scene.  Social Intelligence uses social media and mines the internet for information about you that would be unseemly to employers.  This company, and others like them, then sells this information back to the company seeking to hire you.  Don’t make the mistake of having information for them to find.

This topic doesn’t just apply to the job search but throughout your career.  You will constantly be asking clients, customers and your bosses to put their faith in you that you can handle the pressure and to get the job done right.  Your Facebook should be a testimony to those attributes, not a detriment.

The expression is true that “you never have a second chance to make a first impression.” So head of to your Facebook page and give it a little “Facelift.”