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Is your social media important? Listen in... Transcript: Social media is a stage and important people are watching. DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS! on this episode of Zoom Out–The Career Center Podcast. [00:00:07] My name is Nathan Wilson, assistant director with the Duke University Career Center here listening to the Career Center podcast I remember way back in 2009 seeing an article on ESPN about a Philadelphia Eagles employee who was fired after posting a profanity filled Rant on Facebook about Brian Dawkins leaving the Eagles to sign with the Denver Broncos in free agency. And I remember thinking that's harsh but this is probably the new normal. If employers don't like what you have to say on social media and you have it very clearly posted that you work for an organization they have every right to fire you whether that's fair or not. The fact is these days, you or your social media. The Muse.com has an article called "Five Work Meets Social Media Horror Stories" that's worth checking out. [00:00:53] Number one is trash talking on Twitter. So a friend of mine is flying on an airline that also happens to be one of her clients. Her flight gets canceled leaving her stranded. So she takes to Twitter to blast the company. That's right. The same company that pays her. Well you're biting the hand that feeds you. Do you think that that ended well? Probably not. It says that she got a slap on the wrist. Well she's lucky she didn't get fired. [00:01:16] Number two caught red handed on Instagram. So this person once made the quote ridiculously foolish mistake of telling their co-workers that they were running out for a quick bite for lunch before diving into a daunting project. Truth was they went out for a quick trip on the lake with their friend and just couldn't resist posting a picture of the beautiful landscape. Well her boss promptly liked the photo which in boss speak means quite the opposite. [00:01:42] Number three PG 13 on Pinterest. So this person worked with the social media community manager who was explaining to a client how Pinterest worked and the client asked them to pull up the account. So she pulls up her account but, well you see why she was hesitant to do so. She had all kinds of different memes that were littered with quote four letter words, some pretty controversial political statements and a handful of risque pictures of herself an artistic retro pinup poses. Now what you do on your own time is what you do on your own time. But you need to be mindful of the fact that anything that you wouldn't want a boss or a colleague or a stranger to see, you may want to consider not posting publicly. [00:02:27] Now these examples apply to people who are already employed. But I would say you probably need to be even more careful if you're in the process of applying because as the same Web site points out, 92 percent of companies are now using social media for hiring. And three out of four hiring managers check out a candidate's profiles. That's really significant. OK. I've seen that firsthand at a previous job we had a candidate who had a really strong phone interview–among a number of other people who were very strong. So one of the ways that we kind of screened our applicants is Google them see what's on their social media accounts. [00:03:06] And, this person had an Instagram account that was public that was absolutely littered with all kinds of really negative things about their current job. What goes through your head when you see an applicant post those kinds of things you don't know what kind of job they're coming from. But at the same time it's just as likely that they're going to post that same kind of stuff at your current job. Another one that I've seen firsthand there is an applicant who had a really strong interview. We looked him up on LinkedIn which is often the first place you go. You know LinkedIn is supposed to be professional and so usually you're going to assume you're going to see the most poli