You do have a responsibility to yourself and to your image if you have an account, however. Managing your online reputation is critical.
You have heard the security warnings about how giving too much information about when you are not home can allow burglars to break in, or about how giving the year of your birth can eliminate you from a job before you’re even interviewed.
You may not have given much thought to how comments, photos and other “fun” stuff can hurt your image as well.
Your account is not private. Let’s face it. If you have more than 15 or 20 “friends”, you don’t really “know” all of them well enough to be sure they are looking out for your best interests. Even if they are, we don’t know what their “friends” will do with something you post in a comment thread.
Here is a recent example brought to my attention. A man commented on his social media site that he hoped management would not go through with a plan to add a project with a busy weekend coming up. This meant more work and giving up a day off. Six or seven co workers weighed in with agreement, some of them even saying their boss was “sucking up” putting that project on the table. Of course due to some “mutual friendships” in the Facebook world, the thread was seen by the supervisor who lamented to upper management that “this hurt my feelings.” Hopefully those who commented won’t be ruled out next time a promotion or plumb assignment comes up. Never complain about your job on social media! In fact, post when you had a good day, a win for the team or when a colleague was recognized. This probably makes you feel good and sets a good tone for the comments your friends will post to your “wall.”
It’s OK and even expected for Sarah Palin or an elected official to post their political beliefs. Are you in a job where that’s acceptable? Give it some thought before you share that information.
Never post any comment or information about yourself to your home or profile page that you would be embarrassed for your boss to see. If you are Facebook “friends” with anyone at work, chances are, the boss will see it.
Do list your volunteer pursuits and do post positive thoughts you have about others when you’re comfortable doing so.
Be mindful of the photographs you post as well. You should have fun and hobbies. This makes life interesting. But be thoughtful. If you are a cigar aficionado and you’re prepared to defend this, posting a profile picture of you with a great smoke is probably alright. If you post a shot of yourself smoking something illegal, however, that’s a bad call. That photo can be copied and literally clicked around the world, with your name “tagged” in seconds.
Twitter is even more difficult to protect. Anyone “following” you can re-tweet your comments, and their friends can do so again without your knowledge. Recently a tweeter sent out a message, “Called in sick to finish Christmas shopping.” I hope he was kidding.
I’ve talked with several high profile employees about their comments or photos posted on Facebook. Invariably they defend whatever they post because they have both “professional” and “personal” accounts. The job related sites usually include a great, working photo of the account holder. But one co-worker’s personal account had a profile shot of her spanking another woman’s butt. All in fun, I’m sure, but not a positive image. If I hold a Facebook account, and I search your name – John Quigelstein –all of your profile pages are accessible to me, even if I am not a “friend.” This means I can see at the very least, your profile pictures, political beliefs and other information that may not reflect positively on you.
If you truly feel you want your social media accounts to be more personal and private, consider parsing your friends and followers list down to just a few people whom you know very well. But if you like being part of a huge social community as do millions of other Americans, you need to consider the consequences of your posts.
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