Be Careful of What Your Social Networking Site Says or Doesn’t Say About You

Social networking sites are widely used by nearly everyone. This includes your employers and clients that may be considering hiring you for a job. Therefore, you want to be careful of what your profile or wall of your personal networking site is saying about you.

If you are using your social networking site for business purposes only, you may be fine with what content you have on your site. However, if you are posting personal information you want to be aware that this can be seen by the public which can include practically anyone.

Career.com indicated that they review the social networking sites of approximately 85% of their applicants. They have also advised that situations have occurred where they have not hired an applicant because of the information found on their social networking site.

There have been several articles and news related stories where employees have been fired related to content found on their social networking site or wall.

With all of this being said, be careful of the content on your site for everyone to see. You may land a client and pass with your portfolio, references and other information and lose the account because they checked your Twitter account and there was inappropriate content or behavior found on your site.

Remember that you are putting your name and reputation online for many jobs. If your name is tied to your social networking site with non-business discussions that may be offensive or something that should never be said. As a reminder, this is the internet and things are usually posted, tweeted to other place and forums and may never be completely gone.

Some social networking sites do have the option of changing your privacy settings which can restrict who may or may not see your private postings. You want to definitely look into this option if you are personally posting. Don’t befriend anyone you don’t know.

Building your business is a full time job and you should be aware that when someone Googles your name or business, you want positive things to be fed back when searching, nothing negative.

Would you like to add anything to the discussion of social networking sites and your business as a freelancer? If so, please let us know. Submit a comment and give us your opinion. 

enjoy these other resources:
http://thewritestuffpenandpaper.blogspot.com/2011/03/using-social-media-apps-to-make-your.html