Your social media may be the reason you can't find a job

So you have polished your resume, it looks perfect from every angle. No typos or grammatical errors, it highlights you in the best light, you have quantified your accomplishments, you have tailored it to the position you're interested in and you hit send. And then...crickets.

No one is biting. And you cannot seem to figure out why, so you go over the most obvious things. It takes a recruiter six seconds to read your resume or toss it into the bin, real or metaphorical.

While there could be a thousand reasons why you're not getting an invitation for an interview, one is not something we immediately think of when applying for jobs. Your social media profile. Yes, maybe the recruiters will have a look at our LinkedIn profile and verify we're as good a candidate as we profess to be. But what about your other social media engagements?

Audit There are currently about five social media platforms that people are interacting on excluding the professional ones. And because they are out there, anyone can stumble on them and follow your most recent escapades. We have become a society where we share everything, including details of our personal lives that no one else has any business knowing.

Now more than ever, it is essential to look up your name and see what crops up, and what kind of impression it gives someone who is interested in pursuing a professional relationship with you.

Mind your language What kind of language do you use when posting on your social media? Do you use a lot of profanities and disrespectful language - the kind that if a recruiter stumbled upon would put them off taking you seriously? Cursing, profanities, unsanitary language - these are all red flags for potential employers. At worst they signal that we do not have the capacity for self-regulation, an extremely important component of emotional intelligence.

If you find that too many of these show up in your social pages, consider making these pages private (not a guarantee that a potential employer will not stumble upon them) or edit out the offensive material. Or just don't post it in the first place.

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Sharing. Too much You post a selfie an hour. You're on social media updating the world on everything about you, your children, your spouse and your employer. You have a habit of writing very long posts - as it that's your second job, and you're always updating your status with emoticons that do shame to a roller coaster. In a split second you could seem incapable of self-regulation, or egotistical, or not a team player. Either way, attributes that do not make you attractive to a potential employer.

Or you veer into the highly sensitive topics including your political views and forcing them down everyone's throats. Or religion. This could very quickly make you come off as intolerant and unwilling to compromise with people who don't hold your views. Passion is great, even desirable. But on the internet where things are prone to misinterpretation, stay off sensitive conversations that could portray you in a negative light.

TIPS Unless your job actually requires you to eat, breathe and sleep social media, employ moderation or keep your content private when pursuing positions in new organisations.

Social media has become the first impression before recruiters actually meet you - make sure it persuades people to want to meet you, not to run as far from you as they can.