In the past couple of years, social media sites have gained momentum, and one can claim they have taken over people’s lives. Sites like Facebook and Twitter have become an integral part of many students’ personal lives, and social media behavior has begun to spill into their professional lives as well.

While keeping a clean social media image is important in a job search, actually learning the ins and outs of Twitter can benefit students in future careers.

For example, monitoring competitor brands via Twitter is a key marketing tactic used by many brands. Companies such as Sherwin-Williams and Moleskine tweet out to their consumers and create a very personal connection to them. Other public relations, media and retail companies also use Twitter to connect with their customers, so learning to use the site could come in handy.

Aside from companies using social media as a tool, jobseekers and the currently employed can use them as well. In some cases, a simple and witty tweet could lead to a job interview — or even an offer.

However, there are also some horror stories, which have lead to people losing a job or even more serious repercussions.

Sunny Woo, junior in Business, told the story of a person she knew who lost a job offer because of inappropriate content on one of his social media sites. This person bought a plane ticket, flew out to a city for a job interview and got a call from the human resources department that the company had rescinded its offer.

You can take a couple of steps to clean up your Twitter.

First, use social media the way it is intended. Frances Sears, assistant director for Career Services in the College of Business, advises students to avoid using LinkedIn similarly to how they use Facebook.

When adding someone on LinkedIn, make sure you know him or her in some capacity and have some type of professional tie. It’s also important to have the mind-set of how you can benefit the person, versus how they can benefit you.

Twitter, on the other hand, allows a more comfortable relationship with potential recruiters and executives of top companies. Tweeting, retweeting and even following them can keep you in the know.

However, when you do begin to tweet in the realm of these professionals, be mindful of what is posted. Negative comments about anything are best not tweeted at all.

“You don’t want to say anything negative about anybody else, a product, a brand,” Sear said. “Just because you have no idea who could be reading that, it is out there for the world.”

If your tweets are questionable, you can privatize your account; however, you cannot control your friends or what they post. Niki Hoesman, sophomore in AHS, said she makes sure her friends ask her permission before they tag her in photos.

Although Twitter does not offer this security measure, you can ask your friends to clear it by you before they mention you in a tweet that might be visible to the public.

There’s a certain decorum in daily life, and it’s important to carry that over into social media, namely Twitter. More than Facebook or LinkedIn, Twitter is a more personal and accessible connection to you. It allows for either a successfully in-depth portrayal of you as a person, or a potential miscommunication of who you are.

Ambika Gautam, a social media strategist at Bartle Bogle Hegarty, said: “My best advice is to keep the majority of ‘emotional spillage’ off Twitter. A lot of people tend to overshare, much like you’d see on Facebook. Keep it content focused … and don’t dilute your personality.”

One advantage to social media is that we can control the content. You may not be able to control that awkward snot dripped sneeze in your interview, but you can control that retweet about why marijuana should be legalized.

Rohaina can be reached at [email protected].