4 Reasons Why I Disagree With the "social media employment test"
0 Comments Published by Svetlana Zhukova on Sunday, April 19, 2009 at 7:47 AM.
Now, this is a post I feel strongly about. The general idea of employers looking for a better rounded individuals is true (in an ideal world), but I disagree with the statements of the following 'social media employment test'
Here is why.
(disclaimer: if a person in question is being evaluated as a social media specialist, then yes, the article applies. If it is any other profession - my response is below)
1. "You need to have twitter, FB and linkedin". REALLY? Social media is a communication channel of CHOICE - people choose if they want to use any media, how they want to use it, and how often. If I choose not to have facebook profile, why would it make me a worse candidate? If your recruitment agent tells you "hire the guy who has FB vs the one who doesn't" as a differentiating criterion, may be you need a new recruitment agent.
2. It's PERSONAL. People start facebook, blog, twitter, linkedin profiles for all sorts of reasons, and if I choose to login to facebook once a week, not 10 times a day, and have 80 close friends against 800 everyone-I-know, it doesn't make me a better or worse employee. (well, it kinda makes you a bad one if you spend 2 hours of your working time on facebook - unless you work for facebook). No one has the authority to say "this is a right use of social media. This is a wrong use of social media".
3. "Start your blog to portray yourself as a well-rounded individual". Hmm, let me think about this one… Genuinely interesting blogs and tweets are started as a personal passion, they are AUTHENTIC because people care and have interest for what they write about. Gimmicky social media backfires, you know.
4. "Do not express controversial points of view on your profiles". Now, this one upsets me the most. Most interesting reads are the ones that spark conversations - which usually happens when there are different views. Write what you care about, not what your employer wants you to care about (unless the two are the same, then you have an ideal job already).
Here is why.
(disclaimer: if a person in question is being evaluated as a social media specialist, then yes, the article applies. If it is any other profession - my response is below)
1. "You need to have twitter, FB and linkedin". REALLY? Social media is a communication channel of CHOICE - people choose if they want to use any media, how they want to use it, and how often. If I choose not to have facebook profile, why would it make me a worse candidate? If your recruitment agent tells you "hire the guy who has FB vs the one who doesn't" as a differentiating criterion, may be you need a new recruitment agent.
2. It's PERSONAL. People start facebook, blog, twitter, linkedin profiles for all sorts of reasons, and if I choose to login to facebook once a week, not 10 times a day, and have 80 close friends against 800 everyone-I-know, it doesn't make me a better or worse employee. (well, it kinda makes you a bad one if you spend 2 hours of your working time on facebook - unless you work for facebook). No one has the authority to say "this is a right use of social media. This is a wrong use of social media".
3. "Start your blog to portray yourself as a well-rounded individual". Hmm, let me think about this one… Genuinely interesting blogs and tweets are started as a personal passion, they are AUTHENTIC because people care and have interest for what they write about. Gimmicky social media backfires, you know.
4. "Do not express controversial points of view on your profiles". Now, this one upsets me the most. Most interesting reads are the ones that spark conversations - which usually happens when there are different views. Write what you care about, not what your employer wants you to care about (unless the two are the same, then you have an ideal job already).
Labels: opinion, social media, why i disagree
