I believe that today, young people who engage with social media a lot and care about their future career, will try to manage their virtual profiles -- you never know who's gonna view your Facebook page and read what you say on Twitter.
Before LinkedIn thrived, many employers would Google their potential employees and check their public profiles and speeches on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking platforms. However, thanks to LinkedIn, the social network for professionals all over the world, young people started to build up their professional profiles on it. Companies and employers "hunt" potential employees via LinkedIn and view the applicants' professional backgrounds. In the mean while, young people have an easy access to know about the companies before they send out their resumes. This is a two-way-selection for both employers and employees.
Now, when you go to LinkedIn and view people's online behaviors, you will find that everyone is so behaved! If you check your friends' updates, you will probably see working experiences updates, industry article sharing and professional connection updates. And you will say: " I didn't know he/she's professional!"
I get it. Because you probably engage with your friends on Facebook most of time, you get surprised when you see their professional aspects. You may even think: "hum, his/her Facebook profile image is not like that..."
LinkedIn gives young people more opportunities to showcase themselves and impress someone may hire them. The smart ones know the art of How to Perform on Professional Social Network and really pay attention on what they do, what they say and how they stay in touch with their new and old connections. These people understand Netiquette, which means Etiquette on Internet.
Another good thing of LinkedIn is that it "releases" young professionals in some way -- they have more latitude on what they say and what they share on Facebook (maybe not Twitter since it is mainly a place for words and people need to watch their words). Since employers kind-of shift from Facebook to LinkedIn when they are searching the applicants, young professionals can share more of their personal social life on Facebook such as express their emotions/political opinions, blah around and be funny. They don't have to worry too much about "what if the company I really wanna go see my photos at Jennifer's party?""do I sound stupid of posting these words?"...
However, if you think you are completely free from the "Nos" rules on Facebook, you probably will not be able to maximize the functions of your LinkedIn. The reason? Employers go to LinkedIn more doesn't mean they don't go to Facebook anymore!
Imagine that you have a really good looking personal page on LinkedIn: professional profile image, good education background, a lot of internship experiences and plenty of professional article sharing. The company you have been keeping in touch just scheduled an interview with you next Monday. You are so stoked and you hang out with your friends on Friday night and guess what? You get drunk and you have no idea who posted your pretty drunky face at 2am in the morning of Saturday. On Monday, when you are dressing up for the interview, your interviewer goes to your Facebook page because she's curious about what kind of person you are in real life. And without surprise, she cancels the interview.
This example is a little bit exaggerated. But I definitely see young people who had decent LinkedIn profiles but didn't pay enough attention on what they post on Facebook.
Social media can be tricky. Being able to establish one good looking public profile doesn't mean you can run your entire virtual world well. Netiquette doesn't sound that hard. But it does take a lot of time to learn and develop.
Summer Fang
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