I was watching Breakfast TV last week where the presenter introduced a 'Career Strategist' who was brought in to discuss the topic of how social media can sabotage your chances of getting hired. My first thought was irritation that I hadn't thought of calling myself a Career Strategist - it sounds impressive! My second thought was that this is indeed an increasingly common trend with recent studies suggesting that 70% of employers do check out a potential employee's social channels.
From a professional perspective, LinkedIn is the 'professional' channel - the one where you identify your professional self. Contrary to what seems to be common sense (to me), I'm regularly surprised by how personal some people get on LinkedIn and it's often inappropriate. In our industry, I do think that we should all be self aware enough to know what the boundaries are between personal and professional and if you've overstepped that boundary, a future employer is potentially going to see it and they're going to judge you. It's worth reviewing your profile, ensuring that it is factually accurate - you'd be surprised how many people improve their degree by a notch or two (and some employers do still check for degree certificates).
Where you do also need to pay attention is to your personal channels. The most important thing here is your privacy settings. As long as you know it's private to your close friends you can still potentially post what you like but I've seen employers looking people up on Facebook, Twitter, Tik Tok and Instagram and so many people don't apply any privacy settings. Potential employers don't need to see your holiday snaps, out clubbing, playing golf etc. I used to say this just about photographs on CVs...you want to be judged professionally on your work skills. Don't let an employer filter you out of the process early on because they've made a decision based on what they've seen on the internet and then just made a non objective conclusion about you.
I don't see this as censorship. I think we all need to be mindful of our posts on social media. Some conversations are best had privately and online debates never end well. Content often doesn't age well and your views may have changed over time - make sure you have reviewed all your channels and ensured that anything that is public content is well judged and will not be mis-interpreted.
A good LinkedIn profile is the first port of call to any employer so that would be the place to start. Keep it concise and clear and accurate. Regular posts are helpful if they are relevant to your skills and the industry showing you are interested and engaged in the work that you do. Make social media work for you not against you.