by Janel Martinez

In this day and age, the world of social networking has infiltrated almost every industry, from film and television to government and manufacturing. The same has become true for those in human resources, recruitment and job placement. Aside from using social networking to advertise career opportunities, HR professionals now rely heavily on sites such as Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter to search for and weed out potential candidates. “Social media tools have essentially opened up a new world for HR Professionals, in particular around attracting and recruiting globally,” says Tyese Battle, human resources manager for a Fortune 100 company. “Progressive HR leaders are including LinkedIn and Twitter, among other sites, in their plans to get the word out about critical jobs, and creating controlled communications intended to increase brand and internal company culture awareness.”

Here are a couple of tips on how to establish and maintain a worthwhile presence in social networking:

THE POWER OF THE POST

Social networking can be both a blessing and a curse when it comes to job search.  Since so many recruiters and hiring managers seek out prospective employees on sites such as Facebook and Twitter, your status updates or tweets can either make you or break you.

Usage of profanity, expressions of negative character, and display of behavior which is contradictory to the person they interviewed can raise an immediate red flag for employers and result in missed opportunities for job seekers, even if it has nothing to do with their qualifications for the desired position.  On the contrary, posts which display your social consciousness, alignment with the company’s culture, industry expertise, or just your positive personality are much more attractive to employers and less likely to discredit you.

If you’re in the market for a new career opportunity, it’s extremely important that you are conscious about what you post, not only on your profiles, but on the profiles of friends, family members, and colleagues.  It isn’t enough to change your settings to “private.”  The reality is that nothing is really private in the world of social networking.  Everything can be forwarded, copied, and retrieved in one way or another.  The six degrees of separation on earth becomes more like two degrees in social networking...