How many times have you read a post on Facebook or Twitter and thought to yourself: “Wow…I can’t believe that he/she wrote that!”?
People often tell me that they use Facebook for “personal” use only. Unless you live in a cave and never expect to interact with anyone, especially in the business world, you are fooling yourself if you think this. Even if your Facebook friends are just your family members and close friends, isn’t there even the slightest chance that at some point they could provide a referral for you or work with you in some way? If you’ve positioned yourself as unprofessional, unreliable or other “un’s” on Facebook, why wouldn’t they assume that you’d be that way in the working world?
There’s currently a Fan page that refers to a young man who lost his scholarship to Harvard based on his Facebook posts. He had been accepted to several Ivy League schools and laughingly posted about his acceptance to Harvard, with a full scholarship, using quite a few expletives to describe Harvard. While it’s not clear why, Harvard withdrew its scholarship. This is far from the first time that a student has posted something that has cost them a scholarship.
We’ve all heard stories about someone posting a comment or Tweet that got them fired or disciplined. They make the mistake of criticizing their boss, complaining about work, talking about faking being sick to get the day off and so forth – all the while forgetting that they are connected with someone they work with.
I saw a survey conducted by CareerBuilder.com that said that 35% of the time, HR recruiters have eliminated people from consideration for a job, based on posts they found on social networking sites. Wow.
Finally, just last week there was a story about a college student in Michigan who is being sued for $750,000 for creating a FB Group criticizing a local towing company. Even though there have been complaints filed with the Better Business Bureau and many people also posted complaints on the page, the suit claims defamation.
It’s always good to remember that posters can be sued for libel, defamation and probably a host of other legal issues.
So, what do you think? If you read a post from someone and you think they’ve crossed a line, do you do anything like hiding or unfriending/unfollowing them, making a comment or simply ignoring it? Have we gotten so casual on social networking sites that we forget that posts can have negative consequences?
So true, Deb!
I remember a story from an HR client of mine. She was interviewing a candidate who looked awesome for a high-profile position. The candidate had locked down her Facebook profile pretty tight. So, the HR person walks down the office hall to the staff person who had referred this candidate for the position and asked, “Say, Mike. You are friends with Candidate, aren’t you? I’d love to see her Facebook page.” At which Mike unleashed the profile that Candidate thought was “private!”
If you don’t want something to appear on the front page of the New York Times, keep it off email and the internet. Period.
Loved this post!
Lida
http://www.LIDA360.com
Thanks, Lida!
It’s a very small world…especially for job seekers! Always good to keep that in mind.
Just discovered this blog thru Bing, what a way to brighten up my year!
Glad I brightened your year! Hopefully I’ll continue to do so.