Social networking can be an amazing tool to help us craft our online profiles/resumes. These online tools help many connect with old friends, find new jobs/new hires, and share personal information with others. The one item we can’t soon forget though, is the damage that comes from not using social networking tools properly. When publishing items online, you need to think about who will be able to see them, colleagues, friends, your boss, even family members. I want to review the following in this article to help us all avoid the pitfalls that can waylay us as we craft our online profiles and statuses:

1. Internet privacy
2. Think before you post
3. Varying site usage and profiles
4. Quality, not quantity

Internet Privacy

This is first item I want to touch on because it is so very important to understand how much lack of privacy there is on the Internet. Despite the many precautions available to help protect yourself online, trust me — if there is someone who wants your information, they’ll find a way to get it. So you need to be cautious about what you place online. For some reason, there is a draw for the most timid people to feel brave in posting what they please online, and they feel that if they disguise their names, they are safe. Not true. There are many ways someone can trace content online back to original author. For those of you that have blogs, networking profiles, or personal/business websites, here are a few things I would recommend performing regularly to help protect yourself online:

• Change your online passwords every month
• Review your analytics (if applicable) for suspicious activity every few days or so
• If possible, install IP watchers for suspicious admin logins from unknown IP addresses
• Review and make sure security settings are in place for your intended audience

I am sure that many of us have had times where we have felt digitally violated, either via a site hacker or not fully understanding security settings and allowing someone to see something that wasn’t intended for all audiences. Recently, my personal site was hacked; this wasn’t the first time I was given the “opportunity” to be a victim of somebody’s idea of “good fun”. They found a way into the admin page of my site, where they decided to have their way with my user comments. They altered a few of them, making them appear as though I was writing my own comments and promoting myself in a rude and arrogant manner. It actually took me a few weeks to finally be able to find out whom it was. I had placed an admin IP watcher on my Wordpress blog, which notifies you of suspicious logins from unknown IP addresses. I was then able to trace the IP address to someone I had previously worked with. This was a big wake up call to me — you never know who is watching your online profiles and waiting or looking for the opportunity to make a malicious move of destruction. Since the occurrence, I have followed the 4 suggested items above regularly, because you just never know.

Think Before You Post

Now that you feel you have your privacy under control, the next thing I want to emphasis is being smart in what you choose to make visible to the masses out there on the Internet. This is really where the whole etiquette part plays in. The best way I can put it is “do unto others and you would have them do unto you”. Whether you’re writing web content, blog posts, comments or status updates, only write things that you would feel comfortable saying in person. Don’t try and hide behind a screename or being “anonymous” because as stated previously, if someone wants to find the original author bad enough, there’s always a way. Before you hit that “publish” button, stop and think about who might be viewing this and what, if any, ramifications may occur. Honestly, all it takes is just one comment, blog post, online article, or status update to ruin a lifetime of profile building and resume development. One thing to note is that many companies review all social profiles of a future candidate. Doing this has helped me in hiring individuals for freelance work or for the design teams that I have helped build at previous companies. I was often very surprised at how different the individuals appeared during their interview(s), as opposed to how they represented themselves online.

Varying Site Usage and Profiles

Now don’t be afraid to post things online due to the fact that a future employer might not agree with your opinions or personal beliefs that you may express on your profiles. Being cautious does not mean you have to sacrifice in showing your personality. You just need to have an understanding that not every social networking site is made for you to show any and everything about who you are. You can use each network for a particular use, such as using LinkedIn for your complete business profile and Facebook for all of your personal information. However you decide to divide the two would be fine, just make sure that when you do divide them you continue to keep them separate. Never combine your work and personal life in one profile. If you have a personal profile and want to keep it personal, use the built-in security settings to make sure only people you choose and know can see the content. That does not mean that you can post whatever you want without consequence – there are many ways for a disgruntled “friend” to share the content of your profile with an unintended audience.

Quality Not Quantity

Think carefully before you send or accept friend requests. What value would that person bring to your network? Don’t just accept/invite everyone, you can’t be too careful when choosing friends. The value of social networking is to leverage your contacts for referrals, business leads, new opportunities, etc. Only people who know you can help you. Also, just because you are friends with someone doesn’t mean you will be friends forever. Take time to occasionally review your friend list and get rid of people whose values and behavior don’t align with yours. Recently I deleted over 250 friends from my Facebook account. I, too, got caught up in the buzz of having hundreds of friends in my network. If you were one of these people, please don’t take it personally, as for most of you, it had nothing to do with who you are but just with what type of relationship we have. All of my business contacts are now in my LinkedIn network and only close personal friends and family are in my Facebook network. Trust me — you will get a far better value from a close network of 30-50 people than a network of 300-500 people that you hardly know.