A recent Kaplan Test Survey had some informative facts about how b-school admissions officers research candidates’ online personas during the MBA application process. Particularly, the report said that 27% of admissions officers surveyed said that they searched the internet for applicants to learn more about them – and 22% admitted that they have researched candidates’ social networking presences, including visiting their Facebook profiles.
Furthermore, of the admissions officers who did snoop at social media profiles, 14% said that they found something that negatively impacted a candidate’s application. That candid photo snapped of you in an unbecoming pose after a late-night bender? That might look bad.
Social media has quickly become part of our daily lives, and can present problems if it blindly merges uninhibited social lives with our more structured business personas. Fortunately for MBA applicants, the large social media websites have noticed that people lead nuanced online lives, and have adjusted privacy settings accordingly. But still, there are some steps you can take to insure that admissions officers don’t find those incriminating photos.
On Twitter, you have only one real option if you are worried about privacy: In your account settings, check the box that says “Protect my tweets” to make sure that only people who you approve can see your tweets. Of course, doing this will also limit your Twitter feed’s effectiveness as a networking tool.
For Facebook, it will take some time to navigate its privacy system. Under the “Account” menu in the upper right of your profile, select “Privacy Settings.” Facebook offers robust privacy options, but locking your profile down might mean more than selecting “Friends” as the default privacy – make sure you systematically go through all the options and set each setting individually. Look out for your apps, too, because each can offer individual privacy settings. And whenever you post anything, you can adjust the item’s specific privacy settings, allowing it to show to just your friends, to the public, or to a custom list.
Still not sure about your Facebook privacy? You can go to youropenbook.org and search for yourself – and you will see anything that is publicly visible.
Google Plus is a new player on the social media scene, but already offers robust, nuanced privacy options. At a minimum, you should sort your contacts into circles, and then when you post something limit it to specific circles. Additionally, you can edit your profile to stop search engines from seeing it – and thus limit Googlers from seeing what’s there.
As you’re monkeying with your settings, keep in mind that social networking privacy can be a balancing act, especially if you are using the sites as business networking tools (as many MBA applicants do.) Perhaps a better option is to not post anything that an admissions officer might frown upon in the first place. Some people find that having two sets of profiles (one for business contacts, and one for friends) is an effective strategy, although this requires more maintenance time and some of the privacy risks are still there. Alternatively, try making the public parts of your presence (Facebook profile, etc.) more business-oriented, and then make all of your interactions visible only to friends.
While you’re dialing in your social networking profiles, make sure you connect with Find MBA on Facebook and Twitter.