What your Social Media profile says about you!

I’ve been looking through a fair few LinkedIn profiles today (just checking that the “recruiters” signed up for our technology event in September are actually really recruiters!) Firstly, it’s been a bit disappointing to realise that about 30% don’t appear to have any LinkedIn profile at all. Secondly some of those profiles are absolutely shocking! The main problem areas being:

Limited information
Terrible spelling and grammatical errors
Blatant sales pitches
Comedy photos.

The comedy photo bit reminded me of a funny thread I was reading on the Wayne Kerr Recruiter Fan Club about LinkedIn profile photos.  What’s especially amusing about that thread is the profile pictures of some of the people who’ve commented.  By the way the photo on this blog post is a real social media profile photo of someone I know!

Then, by lucky coincidence Lisa Jones sent me a vaguely connected blog post asking “Are you a social media floosie?” Lisa is known for equating social media to a little like being on a date. here are some of her thoughts mine… can you see yourself in here? Would you add anything?

Are you a social media floosie?

• Are you a LION (LinkedIn Open Networker?) I have a little problem with “specialist” recruiters connecting with “anyone”.
• Do you follow more people on Twitter than follow you – this is not always a definite sign of you being a floosie, but think about the message you are sending out by potentially following “everything in a skirt” to attract attention.
• The people you are following on Twitter, or connected to on LinkedIn – maybe you have absolutely no idea who they are or how you connected with them… one night stands?
• Is your social media photo one that has you cropped at the shoulders with apparently no clothes on? (oops)

Or are you a boring date?

• You scream and shout about how many followers / mentions / retweets you have? (Akin to “look how many exhausts my car has”)
• You talk more about yourself than listen / comment on others
• #Job #Jobs #Hiring (see previous post...)
• You don’t have much to say at all…
• Is your social media photo one that has you yapping on the phone / typing at a pc… is that really who you are?

Have a think about your online behaviour and how it makes you look – and think about whether it would get you that hot date, or even a second date if you were lucky enough to get the first!

Lisa promises me she’s in the process of writing a blog about how to weed out the people you follow on Twitter to make your community more targeted (this will help you listen and attract more followers). Keep an eye out for this.