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• By Abbott on 02/25 07:06 AM

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• By Bob on 02/17 04:03 PM

  Wesley, Freedom without responsibility can't last long. Free speech should be totally free, but that doesn't absolve you from the responsibility that comes with it. People have a right to say what they want, others have a right to react the way they see fit (within the law).

• By Ricky on 02/17 03:12 PM

  Why does it matter? If it is public information what is going to stop them from looking? Way overblown in my opinion.

• By Wesley Hyatt on 02/17 03:07 PM

  This is interesting, because I blogged about this very topic today on my company's Web site: http://www.mmipublicrelations.com/blog/entry/getting-a-grasp-on-social-media/ Basically, you have to realize that anything you put on a social media site can come back to haunt you, so be prudent. Whether you want employers to check your social media is irrelevant - they can and probably already do so. The big key is to express yourself in a manner that does not reflect poorly on your job. Abusing that, more than anything else, is what will make an employer take notice of your social media activity. Remember, free speech is never totally free - there can be costs involved.

• By Rainnede on 02/17 02:37 PM

  Bob, You are 100% correct. If you're stupid enough to post stuff on your public profile that will affect your job or prospective job, you get what you deserve. I certainly will check social media as part of vetting a prospective employee...BUT that would just be a piece of the puzzle in my evaluation. I give a lot more weight to references than to what people post on their social media.

• By Bob on 02/17 02:34 PM

  Rainnede, I don't think anyone is talking about forcing you to give up private information. If that is the case, I agree with you. I believe the poll is in reference to the multiple cases where people have had job offers withdrawn after a potential employer casually browsed their social sites. One case comes to mind where the person bragged about all the lies they told at their interview. If you mark info as private then it should be 100% protected. If it is casually posted, then no one should be singled out as being prohibited from using it to protect themselves.

• By Rainnede on 02/17 02:16 PM

  I'm of two minds on this one. If my profiles, etc., are private, then nobody should be able to look at them unless I allow it. For example, my Facebook profile is set to the tightest privacy settings I'm allowed...and nobody should be able to force me to allow them to view it, no matter what. On the other hand, my Twitter feed isn't protected. Look at it all you want. What's the difference? Very little, in content, as I post almost identically to both. Outside of content, it's my -choice- to make Facebook private and leave Twitter public. I have been an employer in the past, and there are a LOT of resources available to find out who a person really is. I would look to see what I could find out about someone using social media when hiring, but if it was private, that didn't necessarily mean they were hiding anything. Privacy is very important, and nobody should be allowed to force a person to give up that privacy, ESPECIALLY when there are plenty of other avenues to gather information about a prospective employee. Plus, someone on Twitter made an excellent point: what I post on my social media doesn't reflect who I am as an employee. That's me in my private life. I could definitely be judged wrongly by something I said to a friend on my wall that has NOTHING to do with my professional life. Personally, I don't care if my current employer or a prospective employer sees my Facebook; several of my bosses are my friends on there and can see what I post. What I take issue with is the idea of being forced to give it up.

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