3 Step Clean Up for Digital Hygiene

Digital etiquette has become a necessity in modern day times, since technology and the internet is expanding faster than ever before. There are a few simple guidelines that everyone should follow, given the fact that digital hygiene can make or break a job opportunity for us all. Having a professional resume and coming prepared to an interview will only get you so far. Many employers, if not all, will take a look at your profiles on social networking sites to get a better idea about you before making any hiring decisions.

This may sound scary, maybe even a little bit invasive, but in reality we all agree with the terms and conditions of these websites when we make accounts on them. It might seem like an uncomfortable thing to think about, but it is what we sign on for when we make accounts on websites like Facebook and Twitter. So, either we can delete all of our accounts and become digitally invisible, or we can face the facts and clean up our digital hygiene!

1. There is a time, place, and platform for everything.

For example, if your goal is to network with individuals in your field of work, LinkedIn might be a more suitable choice than Facebook. This gets tricky since most social networking websites are used for both business and pleasure, but getting an idea of which social networking sites are more business or more pleasure is a great start to getting better digital hygiene.

2. Be self aware.

Think twice, update once. If you want to write a Facebook status or even a simple Tweet, take a second to think about how many people can read that. You may write a personal status with only your closest friends in mind, but remember the other hundreds of people you might barely know on your friends list. Will this status be taken the wrong way by people who don't know you closely? Are you aware of your privacy settings? Can millions of strangers from around the world read this status, and if they can, are you comfortable with the information you posted?

3. CLEAN SWEEP!

It is easy to forget about old pictures and old status updates. Oops! What was I thinking when I posted that?! How old was I?! Delete, delete, DELETE! Delete. Doing a clean sweep often will make sure that you don't forget about potentially embarrassing photos and updates that you posted when you first signed up, or when you perhaps, "weren't at your best..."