Don't let it come back to bite you: Protecting your online reputation
Online social networking has replaced telephone conversations, letter writing and, for some, even e-mailing. With social networks, you might share entertaining snapshots of your life, but unless you protect your information, incriminating pictures and comments are visible to friends, family, professors and, most importantly, current and potential employers.
Whether you are a traditional or nontraditional student, managing and protecting your online reputation is essential for succeeding after you graduate. According to Brandenburg (2008), "Students and graduates today are getting more than they bargain for as they attempt to enter the workforce and realize their blogging and social networking ways can come back to bite them."
Online evidence
Online postings consist of brief opinions, personal rants or just basic information of your day-to-day activities. However, many social media users don't take the time to think twice before they hit the share button. Suddenly, your political opinions, your hangover and the rant you posted about your co-worker are available to friends and potential employers. Additionally, any pictures that you or your friends post and "tag" you in are available to hundreds, possibly thousands of people instantly. Those college parties might be a blast, but after graduation a potential employer might not hire someone who streaked through the college football field or were often photographed at the keg.
Although everyone is entitled to free speech, people are often fired from their job for incriminating posts or pictures. Take, for example, Heather Armstrong, who posted on her personal blog Dooce.com about her job and was promptly fired. Although she is now a professional blogger, she writes on her site, "Never write about work on the Internet unless your boss knows and sanctions the fact that you are writing about work on the Internet."
Although Armstrong is now a professional blogger, in a floundering economy, landing and maintaining employment can be a difficult task for anyone. With your boss, and even human resources and IT departments, scanning the Internet for employee information, protecting your online reputation may very well save your job.
Protecting yourself
With social websites such as LinkedIn® and Plaxo®, social networking can be used as a valuable tool for furthering your career, but you should periodically check your online footprint and review your security settings on networking sites. A good method for checking your online profile is utilizing your favorite search engine to look up your legal name. You should also enter any nicknames or profile names that could be linked to your legal name. The searches should display commonly used social networking sites, but might also return listings for any groups you are associated with.
Unfortunately, although membership in some organizations may seem harmless, they could be deterrents for potential employers. For example, if you belong to online groups that are pro-life, pro-choice or politically-based, or groups that expose your sexual orientation, you could be discriminated against when searching for employment.
Another way to protect your online reputation is to constantly review your online privacy settings. Facebook™ has a Help area with step-by-step instructions for hiding your entire profile or just your Facebook wall from "friends" or "friends-of-friends." For example, you can friend your professor or co-workers on Facebook, but with a few settings, they can have limited access to your profile and zero access to daily posts. Since Facebook often alters their design and privacy settings, make sure you review your privacy settings often to ensure ultimate privacy.
For maximum results in protecting your online reputation:
- Check the privacy settings on your social networking sites.
- Don't post or blog about your job or co-workers.
- Review and delete incriminating posts and pictures.
With an endless array of social networking sites available comes the real risk that social media can increase or inhibit your career opportunities. Always protect your information, maintain your online reputation and don't post anything you would feel uncomfortable with your boss or mother reading.
LinkedIn is a registered trademark of LinkedIn Corp.
Plaxo is a registered trademark of Plaxo, Inc.
Facebook is a trademark of Facebook Inc.
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