Responding to the Naysayers & Social Media

Josh Ochs’s second chapter of Light, Bright & Polite gives insight and feedback on how to respond to negative posts on social media. Ochs gives the example of how two citizens in his local town had written hate blogs about him running for mayor. Instead of arguing with the people writing negative things about him online, Ochs passed up the opportunity to argue and instead reached out to them individually. I especially learned from this chapter that arguing online makes you look bad and it hurts your reputation. I like how Ochs describes someone who argues on social media. He said, “All they’ll see is that you’re acting like someone who can’t seem to rise above an argument that’s probably not worth it and is rarely constructive”. Here, the reader can see that arguing online can reveal to a business or company searching for you online what type of person they are really hiring. They will most likely not want to hire someone who is argumentative, unproductive, and not constructive. It creates a bad reputation to respond to hate posts online and reveals the character of that person. I learned that it is better to let things go on in social media and not get bogged down with the argumentative people. You could be running a race and be in first place and about to win but if you go into the grandstands and argue with the people who are booing you, you may win the argument but you’ll lose the race. It’s important to not let the naysayers get in front of your goals and visions.

Another thing I wanted to cover in this week's blog is more on social media, specifically privacy settings and how companies see your social media profile. Social media apps like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat all require certain privacy settings from you and often overshare and your information. This can raise privacy concerns as these apps use your location and many other personal settings which you may not want activated. You can work around these privacy concerns for the most part in the settings section of these apps. For example, you can disable activity status for WhatsApp (app owned by Facebook) so others do not see when you're online. You can also turn off read receipts in the settings section in this app, you can stay off the map for Snapchat (so others can't constantly see your location) and you can limit who sees your posts on Facebook. There are many little settings that these apps do not tell you which information they are using and sharing. I recommend going through the settings in each app and switching off what you do not want to be shared. I usually turn off the "location-based ads" in these apps as I find that a bit intrusive. 

Moreover, the way you use social media is very important. In fact, companies check your social media accounts to see if you qualify for their position. Approximately 70% of American adults have an online presence. This means that the 30% who don't may have a harder time getting hired for a job since they don't use social media. Businesses and companies check if your social media matches what your resume says. If you say in an interview "I'm a very studious and hard-working person" and your social media shows you are constantly out partying every night, it's a turnoff to businesses. Social media is a key for employers to seeing what a person is like behind their qualifications. Career coach Hallie Crawford said it this way:

 “A resume can tell them your qualifications, but your social media profile can help them determine your personality type and if you would be a good fit for company culture.”

Social media employers check everything from your Facebook About Me section to your photos to your tweets on Twitter and also who you follow on Instagram and the pictures you post. This is why it is important to have a professional online social media account and to not use social media in an uncivil and ill-mannered way. What you put on social media can affect your career (bad or good) and it's vital to use social media in a civil and decent manner.

Check out the way I learned to professionally use my Twitter and LinkedIn from a respected individual.