What social media accounts should you include on your resume?
At this point, social media is much more than a fun tool to communicate with friends. Your profiles amount to how you present yourself to everyone, from your future employer to your future billion-dollar business partner. So when applying to jobs, the question arises: What profiles should you include on your resume? Is there a platform you should include no matter what industry you’re in? Does not including any accounts make it seem like you have something to hide? How much is too much?
For answers, we turned to Brian Murray, Talent and Culture Director at Likeable Media, a smart man who’s at the intersection of social media and HR. Take his advice, and go spruce up your resume.
1. LinkedIn is a must. Period.
“No matter what industry you’re in, as a young professional LinkedIn is the place you must be,” Brian says. “It’s not only a place to connect and engage with people, but it’s also a place to be found.”
“So no matter what, if you’re going to be an accountant, if you’re going to work in finance, or a creative space, or anything like that, your LinkedIn is an extended resume. When you’re one job out of college you don’t need a three-page resume or even a two-page resume, you just need one. But your LinkedIn is an opportunity to expand more, to include more projects, so that should be everywhere.”
When it comes to LinkedIn on your resume, what you must have is your shortened profile URL. Make sure your username is something short and sweet, like “kelseyMmanning.” That way, you can include your profile link in this format: LinkedIn.com/in/kelseyMmanning.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a resume that has the LinkedIn logo but it doesn’t tell me how to get there,” Brian says. “So you’re telling me you’re on LinkedIn, but I have to go search for you. You have to make it as easy as possible for an HR person or recruiter to find you, so giving that URL is important.”
2. Never include Facebook on your resume.
“No matter what your’e doing in social, no matter what platforms you’re using, you should always be able to be found and able to pass the eye test that you’re not a bad person,” Brian says. For the most part though, Brian says he doesn’t search people out on Facebook. “It could be different if maybe you’re creative and are using a Facebook Page—not profile, but page—as part of their portfolio. That you should include on your resume.”
3. Twitter is great, but you better be public and active.
“There’s nothing worse than going to look at someone’s Twitter handle and it being protected,” Brian says. “What was that going to accomplish?”
“If you’re listing it just to list it, that’s not smart. If you’re an active participant, then include it. Don’t list Twitter and then let me go and see you haven’t tweeted in eight months. On the other hand if you’ve been working for a brand or company and you’re proud of the work, list that handle and where it is because I’ll go check that out.”
4. Your pictures of your dog may be “artsy,” but they probably don’t belong on your resume.
“If you’re putting your Instagram or Vine on your resume, there’s got to be some creative value to it,” Brian says. “You need to show that you’re helping to solve a problem that a hiring manager is looking to solve. So if you’re in a creative role, if you’re a photographer, awesome. If you’re taking pictures of your dog and the macaroni and cheese you just made out of the box, there’s no professional reason for that.”
“One of our Community Managers that I hired has 30,000 Instagram followers because she does incredible nail art. That made sense for her to put on her resume because she had built a following and it was creative and applicable to the position of Community Manager.”
5. Try a personal landing page.
If you’re applying for a creative role and your social profiles start to take up too much space on your resume, Brian has you covered. “A good way to save space on your resume is to grab yourname.me and put all your social profiles on there,” he says. “If you’re looking at 12 profiles on a resume, that can be difficult, especially when you’re trying to get down to one page.”
6. If you’re sharing an account, do a thorough check first.
Of course, I don’t imagine that any of your social media accounts include anything this awful, but it’s too wild a story not to share: “It amazes me what people are sharing,” Brian says. “I had someone apply to a position at Likeable with a Tumblr in his portfolio. So I pull it up and I’m thinking maybe he’s a photographer because he has pictures of girls and outdoor scenes, but as I scrolled down I literally saw hardcore porn.”
Yes, this is extreme, but it applies on a lesser scale. You may have forgotten about some quip to a girlfriend via Twitter that you wouldn’t want hiring managers to see. Just do yourself a favor and give your accounts a once-over before they land on your resume.
7. If you have active, professional, and relevant social media accounts, include them.
Because as Brian half-jokingly says, “If you can’t be found on the internet, you don’t exist.”
“Social media is quickly becoming a form of communication that I would put on par with email,” he says. “In the next couple of years, if you can’t show that you know how to use Twitter for business purposes, it’s going to be like you’re not able to use email. The assumption for today’s young professionals coming up is that you understand and you know how to use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, they understand blogging, etc., as they would assume that you understand email.”
By: Kelsey Manning
This article was originally published on Levo League.
