Important information for college students to know when dealing with various social media platforms both personally and professionally.

1. TIPS TO STAY SAFE
AND RESPONSIBLE ON
SOCIAL MEDIA
Kaylie West
Ben Thomas

2. Avoid posting inappropriate photos
• On almost every source regarding the
subject of what not to do on social media,
this is listed as number one! Rule of
thumb: if you would be embarrassed if
your mom or dad saw it, don’t post it!
• The Society for Human Resource
Management stated in their 2014 study
that 77% of companies will use social
networking sites to screen candidates, and
51% admitted that they had turned down
candidates for what they found on social
media.
• When the HR manager of the company of
your dreams Googles your name, what will
come up?

3. Avoid swearing or using inappropriate
language
• According to TIME Magazine, 47% of Facebook users
have profanity on their walls.
• A Dallas 6th grade teacher was fired for using the B-word
in a photo comment on Facebook to her best friend. Is this
too much?
• Rule of thumb: it doesn’t matter if the boss you have now
wouldn’t care about the use of profanity, but what about
your future bosses?

4. Keep your opinions to yourself
• If your going to vent about your job, do not do it on social
media.
• Here are a few instances that were listed on Huffington
Post:
• Jason Liptow, a professor at a Michigan community college was
fired after using a failing student as a cautionary tale in a Facebook
post.
• Christine Rubino, a New York teacher fired for joking about
drowning her students in a post on Facebook.
• Dawnmarie Souza, a medical technician, was fired after bashing
her boss on Facebook by comparing him to a “psychiatric patient”
• Cameron Jankowski, a Taco Bell employee in Fort Wayne, Indiana,
was fired after posting a picture on Twitter of him urinating on an
order of Nachos that a Hispanic customer had requested because
he “hated the Spaniards” .

5. Do not disclose your location
• It’s natural for us to want to post about our
vacation or a cool business trip to make
friends and family back home jealous, we’ve
all done it. But this can also make you a target
for burglars.
• David Walsh, chief executive of the security
monitoring service Netwatch, shared with
International Business Times that there has
been an increase in theft due to burglars using
social media accounts.
• He recommends “reverse stalking yourself”.
• Look at the information that you share on social
media and see if you would be able to discover
where you live or where you have been traveling.

6. Never add a phone number or address
• It is a terrible idea to include any of this personal
information on any social media account because you are
potentially asking for prank callers, stalkers, scammers,
and identity thieves who would love to use this
information against you.
• A security researcher, Reza Moaiandin, presented a study where
he wrote a program to generate every possible number in the U.S.,
U.K., and Canada, then submitted those numbers to Facebook and
received millions of profiles that had poor privacy settings.
• Basically, if he wanted to, he could have turned around and sold
that information on the black market to hackers who build and sell
“fullz” or packages of identity information.

7. Avoid giving password clues
• On social media platforms, users share full names, dates,
places of birth, and even financial or employment
information.
• What people don’t know is, these things can be used by
hackers to figure out important information such as
passwords to important accounts.
• IdentityProtection.com suggests:
• Avoid sharing information that could be the answer to a security
question or password reminder prompt.
• Have separate and strong passwords for every account

8. Never fully rely on privacy settings
• Although social media sites do offer privacy settings, keep
in mind that your friends can share or repost something
that was intended for their eyes only, and their privacy
might be set to “public”.
• As stated in the Houston Chronicle, new features that
social media platforms implement can open up loopholes
that allow people to view content that you have opted for
them not to see.
• Regularly check your privacy settings to ensure that
nothing has been altered, and better yet, just don’t post
anything that you are unsure about.

9. Be careful with what you “like” and share
• In just a few minutes, the things you post,
share, and “like” can reveal the way you really
see the world.
• Fair or not, you’re considered “guilty by
association” when people see things on your
social media profiles that they don’t like or
happen to disagree with. These people could
be an HR manager at the company you’re
interviewing with or a potential boss.
• On the website Rick’s Daily Tips, which gives
computer tips, tricks, and tutorials, he
discusses the importance of hiding your “likes”
in your settings just to be on the safe side.

10. Consider having separate personal and
professional accounts on social media
• As we become business professionals and start to use
social media to promote our organization and/or
professional services, it might be a good idea to separate
business and pleasure.
• According to FastCompany.com, having separate
accounts gives you the convenience of being able to post
what you want on your personal account, while remaining
focused and professional on your business account.

11. Finally…
• Use your best judgment when posting, sharing, and liking
content on social media.
• This content paints a picture of who you are, and you
never know how another person will perceive it.
• Just be SMART!