Exercise discretion and good judgment when posting personal information and images on your social networking account.

Social networking sites are a great way to keep in contact with friends, network and meet new people. This social phenomenon is now a permanent fixture of the internet and now more than ever, people are opening up their personal lives for the world to see. However, in addition to your friends and family, you could have a potential employer or supervisor who’s interested in your extracurricular activates as well!

One of the pitfalls of social networking sites such as Facebook is that employers are increasingly using them as apart of their background check process. The wrong type of photos and information posted online can communicate an erroneous image of an individual lifestyle thereby ruining the chances of an otherwise highly qualified individual from being hired. What could be worse than being in the home stretch for a start date at Company XYZ only to have a detailed rant against corporate life on your personal blog completely derail you?

Posting incriminating photos/stories/information, derogatory remarks about one’s company, bad mouthing the boss, etc… online is asking for trouble. Being painted as having a reckless lifestyle off the clock may worry your superiors who could be led to believe such behavior could spill over into the workplace and/or damage the company image. Naturally, what manager will stand around and wait for that to happen based upon preemptive intelligence like that?!?

Disciplinary actions, write ups and terminations have all resulted from people who called their jobs boring on Twitter, boasted of goofing on company time via Facebook and posting photos of wild partying on Myspace. Wise up folks! A couple comments from strangers telling you how cool you look passed out naked surrounded by empty bottles is not worth a termination letter handed to you by your boss on Monday.

Now don’t panic. You don’t need to start living your private life as if you were at work with your manager standing over your shoulder. Generally, if you have to stop and ask yourself if posting particular imagery, information or opinions would be damaging to your career, chances are it is and best kept to yourself and your close circle of friends. I usually ask myself “Is this something I’d want Grandma to see?”

Exercise discretion and good judgment when posting personal information and images on your social networking account. If anything, think of it as an online resume of who you are as a person. As with your professional resume, you want to share information that is going to give people a positive perception of you and not the opposite.