Who Were You on Twitter in 2015? Your Personal Information is Out There!
The year is 2015—right before an election—tensions are running high (sound familiar?). And, you may or may not have indulged in a few (or 40) Twitter rants. Or, perhaps it wasn’t so much politics that tripped your trigger. Instead, maybe 2015 marked a bad breakup that resulted in a few questionable bar selfies or profane tweets. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who can’t relate to at least one of these scenarios. After all, we’re all human! But, when it comes to your past Twitter data, what you don’t remember might come back to bite you—especially in the professional realm.
Before you frantically switch your Twitter privacy settings or delete every post from 2015, there is a better way to clean up your account and present a clean professional slate.
Think Twice Before You Clear Twitter History or Change Your Security Settings
Back in 2011, comedian Gilbert Gottfried was fired as a voice actor for Aflac for an inappropriate tweet about the Japanese tsunami.
In 2013, Justine Sacco, the former director of InterActive Corp was fired for this distasteful and detestable tweet: “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!”
And, more recently, in 2018, James Gunn, former writer and director from “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” was fired from Disney for jokingly accusing certain politicians of running pedophilia and molestation rings out of a pizzeria in Washington D.C.
It’s important to note that while Gottfried and Sacco were fired almost immediately for their inappropriate conduct on Twitter, Gunn’s tweets were from 2009 and 2010. These tweets were made almost a decade before he was fired—a stark and important reminder that you most certainly can be held accountable for something you posted from the past.
Given these examples, the first thing that many people may wonder is how to make a Twitter account private (just in case there are any lurking posts from the past). But, employers and hiring experts actually caution against this, and it makes sense why. Private or non-exist social media accounts can hint that a job candidate or employee has something to hide. In fact, 47% of employers reported that if they couldn’t find an applicant’s social media online, they were less inclined to book an interview.
So, what can you do to protect yourself and ensure your social media past won’t impede your present?
Take Control of Your Social Media Story with a Scan
At LifeBrand we help people just like you who feel stuck between a rock and hard place when it comes to past social media posts. After all, it’s hard to remember what you may or may not have posted a decade or year or two ago, or even yesterday for that matter. Our U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) compliant online reputation management technology scans your social media for any questionable posts. Our LifeBrand software, Powered by artificial intelligence, then flags posts that are deemed “harmful” in the eyes of employers.
And, the best part—you can choose to remove any flagged posts or edit them, eliminating the need to mess with Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter privacy settings.
Why leave your social media posts to chance when you don’t have to? We can help.