Aspiring Private Equity-Backed Executives Need Social Media Savvy

In this Q&A, Lindsay Guzwoski, Partner at Falcon, details how an executive’s online persona can impact career trajectory.

Why should PE-backed executives or aspiring PE-backed executives be cognizant of their social media presence?

People are having a harder time separating their private lives from their business lives as we shift to a more digital world.

The executives who tend to be occupying or applying for roles at the C-suite level generally aren’t as aware of the pitfalls and dangers as some of their younger employees. They often assume that because organizations they worked for in the past were mostly offline, people will treat those presences as separate worlds. That’s when it can become particularly perilous.

Anything about you online is fair game for employees, clients, or potential employers to find. If you’re active on social media but aren’t consciously promoting yourself, you are almost certainly being defined in a non-positive way.

People can have a lot of confidence that they are somewhat anonymous when they post something on Twitter. Well, you’re not. Even if you have a burner account or use a different name, someone can often connect the dots. While the demographics inside private equity firms are getting a bit older, those doing the actual digging tend to be younger. They’re the analysts, the guys in their twenties, and they’re very savvy with social media.

What type of social media activity creates headwinds for candidates?

We’ve encountered proof of a bar fight, Amazon wishlists people didn’t realize were public, a person following a number of adult film stars...