Online Identities: Help or hurt hiring process?

In today's world, the way we portray ourselves has moved from visual and face to face experiences to mostly online social interactions.  We use online interactions almost everyday to communicate with people, express our feelings, post blogs, and pretty much whatever else we want to do.  As this process continues to happen we develop a certain online identity that people notice us by. The problem with this is, do we develop different identities in person and online?

There are several different media outlets that we can use to develop these identities.  Whether it be through a social media outlet like facebook or twitter; a blog, or any other social forum where you can express your thoughts and views.   The way that we portray ourselves on these outlets can have both good and bad consequences.  The identity we decide to show online can affect the way that people view and interact with us when we do meet face to face.  People are expecting us to act a certain way based off our online identity, whether it be good or bad, and are going to judge us for that.  The complication comes when the identity we portray online is completely different then who we are in person. Sometimes we portray an identity online for fun or just to joke around but once we put that stuff out there, its there for good.  This can become a problem when we apply for jobs.  Employers are starting to look at our social profiles and online identities more and more to see what we are like.  An article by fox business (http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2013/06/03/what-your-social-media-reputation-says-to-employers/) explains that more and more employers are looking at our "digital footprints" or marks we have left on the internet.  These marks we make can have a great impact on making or breaking a job opportunity.  The article explains that college students are at the greatest risk for this because our generation are the ones that jumpstarted this whole social media thing.  Employers are especially looking for the language we use and the pictures that we post.  Sometimes these things can prevent us from even being called in for an interview. People are finding that employers are going to social media directly before even worrying about a resume or qualifications.

Our online identities are becoming increasingly more prevalent and important in everyday life, including getting hired for a job.  Although our online identities can hurt us getting a job, they can also help. Many people have a preconceived view that college kids social media profiles are going to be all about partying and drinking but if we can somehow portray a different image of who we really are, employers are going to respect that alot more.  This can also give us the edge against someone who either does not have a social media profile or portrays themselves negatively.