Facebook's Alter Ego
By Nicole Bowling
November 2, 2009
For those of you who have yet to edit your current Facebook and Twitter accounts for professional use, there are a few options for you to transition your user habits to be appropriate, and beneficial, for college and beyond. As a first step, get rid of anything that you wouldn't want your parents to see. As a rule of thumb this works pretty well, except if you have super cool and lenient parents. In that case, just pretend. If you were to follow this rule, it would generally mean that your online accounts would be void of the following things: underage drinking, drugs or drug paraphernalia, other illegal activities, nudity, profanity and other frowned upon behaviors. Anything in this category posted in your profile would certainly hinder your chances of getting a job, and may also even get you into some legal trouble. Once again though, editing your profiles is not about changing your lifestyle. Just be choosy about who gets to see what!
So, to pull it all together, why is all of this online networking stuff so significant for a UM student? Most importantly, Sebille-White says, is that using these sites "can help you access people that you never could before. Executives and high-ups in companies were not available to most people before." By following a company on Twitter, or "friending" or "fanning" a business, you could be making your first steps to establishing these invaluable connections. So, if your goal this year is to find a job or create relationships with people in your field, Facebook or Twitter may be the place to turn. Although it may not seem "right" to be using Facebook to scope out a prospective employer instead of a friend's crazy pictures from last weekend, give it a shot.
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