Social media is the current 'must have' tool, whether you're communicating with family and friends, promoting your business, or taking networking to an online platform, and its reach is growing by the minute. Social media websites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter can be very useful tools for building and growing your network and your sphere of influence. There are more than 600 million people registered on Facebook, over 120 million on LinkedIn, and more than 200 social networks available for you to join;' which makes finding and connecting with new people, and learning about them by what they post on their profiles easier than ever before.
However, this 'cuts both ways'.
It's really important to understand how your actions on social media platforms can affect you. Everything you post can be potentially seen by a great many people. Of course, social media sites have privacy settings which should be utilized, and most social networks allow you to tailor them quite specifically. However, these can sometimes be difficult to get right and, of course, to have extremely tight privacy settings somewhat defeats the object of participating in a social network. Balancing the ability and desire to share information about yourself with setting appropriate privacy controls can be a challenge to even the most tech-savvy of users. A good friend of mine in the IT field says that the privacy settings on most social networks are subject to change, and are sometimes hard to get right. On this basis, she counsels clients never to post anything that they wouldn't be happy to stand by in public. That may sound too harsh to many, but the implications of the advice are certainly worth considering.
Bearing all this in mind, here are a few tips on what to post or not post on social networks:
* Your profile picture should be consistent with your personal brand. Is it consistent with the image you want to portray?
* Avoid negative comments; whether they are about your boss, your company, your colleagues, or about anyone - these comments are potentially public, in writing. And may come back to bite you in future.
* No matter what your age or experience is; remember that there may be a time when a prospective employer may access your profile. Your profile can be a running track record of your career so remember to portray a consistent professional image.
* Pictures and videos can be helpful or hurtful. Pictures of you dancing on the table at a party or the worse for wear from alcohol are best kept out of your social media album; or at least secured by appropriate privacy settings.
* Be careful about sharing your whereabouts and plans. Many social networks want you to publish your travel information and dates. Burglars read Facebook, too!
* If you are thinking of leaving your job, don't post it on your social network. If your boss sees that, you might get your wish sooner than you wanted.
* Videos and pictures of your children may put them at risk, especially when combined with detailed location information. Be aware of what you post.
* Avoid descriptions, pictures, or videos of you doing something stupid. It does not help your professional image.
* Use social media to encourage people to give back to the community, and promote volunteer efforts that you're involved in.
* Use your social media account to post helpful information, and your followers and friends will thank you for it. By answering people's questions and sharing information such as links to interesting articles, you will gain followers, friends and a broader, more productive social network.
* The old chestnuts to avoid at dinner parties - politics and religion - are still subjects to go carefully with, particularly if your views are in any way outside the mainstream.
* Whatever you do, don't share your passwords or even hints about passwords on social networks or on your social network profile.
* Social networks are to network, not to put the hard sell on people. If you're too pushy, people will just switch off and unsubscribe from you.
* No-one wants to know intimate details about your relationships, embarrassing medical conditions, or what you ate for breakfast.
Being part of online social networks is really no different to any other networks. The same rules apply - look after your network, and it will look after you. The biggest difference is scale, and therefore risk when things go wrong. Social networks are quickly available to lots of people, so getting it wrong can be painful as mistakes are broadcast from person to person in moments. On the flip side, a well-prepared and maintained profile combined with some positive and community-spirited network participation can be a real career boost.
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Marsha Egan, CPCU, PCC is CEO of The Egan Group, Inc., a Reading, PA based professional coaching firm. She is a certified workplace productivity coach and professional speaker, specializing in leadership development and can be reached at marsha@marshaegan.com or visit http://www.InboxDetox.com.
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