First Impressions on Social Media

You Only Have One Chance To Make A First Impression.

Did your parents ever tell you that when you first starting interviewing for jobs?

My Dad drilled into my head that the most important part of a job interview is the first 90 seconds. Handshake, smile, say something smart about yourself. If you can sell them in the first 90 seconds, then the rest of the interview is golden and the job just might be yours.

Not so sure that's the case anymore. First impressions now happen way before the interview thanks to social media. Before you ever meet anyone, you can check them out. Thoroughly.

See their entire employment history on LinkedIn and see all the people that you know in common including current and past colleagues. You can reference check without anyone knowing. See their writing style and tone of voice.

See who they are following on Twitter and what interests them. And potentially even go on Facebook. It's AMAZING what you can learn about someone when you check out their wall on Facebook. Pictures, links, posts. You can figure out their relationship status, religious inclinations, political affiliations. You can observe how they respond to topics.

Basically through social media you can REALLY get to know someone before you ever meet them. You can figure out EXACTLY what kind of a person they are.

So that when that person walks into an interview, you've already got a first impression of them.

So for all of us using social media, is our first impression what we want people to think of us?

What's your experience? Jim.