Last week, I attended a conference hosted by a law firm that focused on personnel legislation. Over and over, social media came up and examples were specifically given regarding inappropriate Facebook activity.
When I talk about Facebook here, I am talking about your personal profile on Facebook. People are getting in trouble for being connected to parties, saying information that could be taken out of context or talking about their workplace in some way. My advice: Be careful and use your Facebook Profile to only connect with your closest family and friends. Some people have found Facebook too much of a risk and have simply left. That is the other option.
Facebook is a go-to social media site for law firms to obtain information on particular people. No other social media site was mentioned. Based on what I heard from the evidence presented, I really believe the people, that are hurt the most are those people who post information that really should not be posted at all. Personal parties, thoughts and rants. Secondly, people could be connected to connections just based on their friendship and this can be very dangerous. At one time, I thought it would be fun to connect with complete stranges in the same line of work and interests that I had. These type of connections are extremely risky and ultimately could cost you your reputation. The sad part, you may not know anything at all about these connections. This second reason really got to me.
I don't want to risk anything happening to me because of what someone may or may not say on Facebook. Personal Facebook Profiles for me will be just that personal. It is not worth the risks.
I will still have an account and company page, but I will be spending far less time in the future on Facebook. I understand there are security settings on Facebook and you can tighten them up, but if you connect with someone, you are still connected to that person.
Be careful and really make sure your connections are with people you can trust. Remember, people talk about people and all of us need to be careful of what information we post online and who we associate with. Be Smart | Be Careful and consider keeping your conversation more professional, (Linkedin) and less personal, (Facebook).
Image courtesy of basketman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net