Ultimately you will need social media if you’re looking for a new job. According to a 2018 Career Builder survey, 70% of employers use social media in the hiring process, and when they can’t find anything online, they may well not call you. And that survey was before the pandemic!
What business do they have looking you up anyway? Well, for better or worse, your presence on those sites is pretty public, even if you think your settings are private. You’re essentially standing on a hill and bellowing your beliefs, only those beliefs stay visible to anyone with the wherewithal to seek them. On the other hand, employers are also looking for things like your communication skills and demonstrations that you understand the industry, which are things that can work very much in your favor. So go ahead and make your more personal stuff harder to find, but don’t forget to make your professional profiles easy to find. The more you post on your shiny new profiles, the less airtime your other stuff gets. This is particularly important if your personal spaces have things in there you wouldn’t want potential employers to see, or if you share your name with someone not particularly stellar. (Don’t worry if you’re named Taylor Swift, though—nobody thinks that Taylor Swift is applying for an outside sales rep job.)
Don’t let yourself be overlooked because of a bad or missing social media presence. Take small steps and you can create exactly the kind of digital reputation you want for yourself! Questions? Please feel free to ask me.