Seeds of Interest

Putting Your Best Face(book) Forward: What Every Professional Should Know About Social Networking

While many professionals have been hesitant to join social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter, such sites are becoming almost impossible to avoid. Indeed, many professionals are finding that avoiding social networking sites may result in lost opportunities. Social networking sites provide a number of benefits that cannot be achieved through other forums. In just a click, you can tap into a large audience and market yourself or your business with relatively little expense. Social networking and blogging sites now account for as much as 17% of all time spent on the Internet.

Facebook, which started out as a site exclusively for college students, has expanded at unprecedented rates — over 10% of the American population is now on Facebook. There are now over 300 million active users worldwide, with women over the age of 55 joining at the fastest rate of all users. Twitter is becoming increasingly popular, growing over 1400% in the last year. Other social networking sites, such as LinkedIn and Spoke, which are primarily focused on professional networking and business development, are also growing at rapid rates.

Regardless of which site you use, there are some simple concepts that every professional needs to understand:

Big Brother (or your boss) is Watching
Many new — and even veteran — social networking site users are unaware of how their personal information is stored and exactly what information can be seen by users. This disconnect is made even more complicated by social networking sites' ever-changing privacy policies and terms of use. Recently, many Facebook users have discovered that due to privacy changes on the site, their entire profile, including their photo albums and wall posts, is accessible via a quick Google search by anyone. As most professionals have learned — often the hard way — it is difficult to take back what you have written and all too often your words may come back to haunt you. In the electronic universe, where users can upload pictures and link videos, there are even more opportunities for potential embarrassment or for a post to wind up as the basis of a lawsuit.

Tip: Using a site's privacy controls can be an important way to restrict who can see your information and exactly what they can see. If you are going to take the time to create a profile, take the time to read the site's privacy policy. Reviewing your employer's policies on employee monitoring and expectations of privacy may also provide important guidance on how you decide to control your online profile. If you are an employer, consider implementing a social networking/electronic monitoring policy at your company to reduce any unwelcome liability and to make employees aware of the conduct expected

You Are What You Tweet
Believe the rumors. Internet hackers love to prey on sites like Facebook and Twitter, and although social networking sites are password protected, they are certainly not fail-safe. The New York Times recently featured a story about a Twitter user whose account had been hacked. The user unknowingly sent a tweet to 250 of his followers with a link to a lingerie website. Recent studies have reported that as many as 20% of Internet users have encountered a malicious program while using a social networking site. Some social networking users have been shocked to get a call or email from a friend or colleague wondering why they sent an embarrassing message or a computer virus.

Tip: Make sure your passwords are protected. Additionally, do not abandon your account — stay active and make sure to monitor the messages that are being sent from your account. It is much easier to create a new password than send a message to 500 of your closest "friends" apologizing for the inappropriate message that came from your account.

Magnum P.I.
One of the benefits gained from social networking is the ability to obtain information about others that you might not ordinarily have — from workplace investigations to making a pitch to a potential new client. However, there are risks involved with conducting your own private investigation. Keep in mind that there may be more than one Mary Smith in Chicago, so be sure you have the right person.

In the employment context, an online investigation may uncover information that you would not ordinarily have — or want — such as a job applicant's race, gender, religion, or off-duty conduct. Knowing this information when making an employment decision may increase a company's risk of liability for employment discrimination or a host of other claims. For example, you may want to discover information about a job applicant who is in the late stages of the hiring process. You search Facebook to review the applicant's profile, only to find out that she is holding a glass of wine in almost every picture. You know that many of your clients do not drink, and you are now concerned that she might not be a good fit for your company and choose not to hire her. Under certain states' laws, you cannot discriminate against someone on the basis of their lawful off-duty conduct. Because you decided not to hire her on that basis, the applicant may now have a cause of action against you.

Tip: For recruiting and other employment-related research, it is best to establish a uniform investigation procedure before you start and then follow it. Assign one person to conduct all online research regarding potential applicants and current employees, using a defined set of criteria and considerations. Assign a different person to actually make the decision to hire, fire, promote and transfer employees. This differentiation of duties provides a simple way to reduce the risk. For those actually conducting the research, make sure you stick to your list of criteria to consider and don't get distracted by everything else you see, especially when you relay your research to the decision-maker.

There are many benefits to be gained from social networking and there is no reason to let a fear of cyberspace get in the way of using these sites. In this economic climate, you really cannot afford to miss the professional opportunities offered by social networking sites. However, if you are still unconvinced and want to keep your private life separate from your professional life, another alternative is to establish a professional profile on a site like LinkedIn, and a personal profile on another site, like Facebook. But remember, it is very easy for these professional/personal lines to become blurred, so you should still exercise caution with any information you post on the Internet.