I’m sure all of us have heard at least once in our lives “hey, get off your phone.” While it is a good idea to detach from the digital world and enjoy the world around us, the world is becoming more digitized at a rapid rate. This is especially true within the work world. Over 50% of companies are starting to look first to social media to evaluate candidates. With that in mind, it’s very important in today’s day in age to have the type of online profile that you would be okay with future employers seeing.

When it comes to posting, as cliché as it sounds, you have to think before you post. Though you may think no one is seeing it, companies have ways of viewing profiles that you think may be blocked. Now it’s still a good idea to use the privacy settings that certain sites have to offer.

On Facebook, set your albums to private so that only those who you are friends with can view. Your profile pictures album will still be open, so be mindful of what pictures you set as your profile. As far as posts, you can also set those to be just friends as well. This way, only basic information will be able to be seen by someone who is not a friend of yours while still getting an image of what you look like.

Instagram allows you your profile to either be private completely or open completely. When private, those who want to follow you will have to ask permission first before they can see any of your photos. They also won’t be able to see any tagged photos of you either.

Now as much as it may seem that you want to ‘hide’ your profiles from employers, social media is also an excellent chance to show yourself off. There are so many jobs today that weren’t available in the past because social media wasn’t as persistent. You can demonstrate so many skills using social media that will help push you over the edge to getting that job that you wanted.

Twitter can help you get directly connected with companies. If a certain company you admire has an event going on, live tweet about the event. Use hashtags that they are sponsoring to help them notice you.

Set up your Instagram similar to a brand/company you enjoy. Using a similar format of captions and filters, organize your Instagram to a comparable aesthetic. These are skills that companies are looking for employers to have so that they know they will be a good fit.

Social media is based on entertainment! So don’t stress out about it too much it is all for fun in the end.