Why you Need a Public and a Private Profile in Social Networking

Social networking when taken from the viewpoint of connecting people works; it is a brilliant way of getting people together across various age and demographic groups. The side effect of all this is that as we become more highly connected to each other we do tend to end up living in a fish bowl, everyone knows what we publicly post all the time. This has lead to people getting in trouble.

According to Mashable 8% of people using social networking have been sacked and shown the door because of their activities with social networking and generally annoying the company or violating some rule that needs to be obeyed. It is very easy to be fired for social networking. The idea of a public and private profile though is nothing new, but it is time for a wider adoption of the concept in our always-on always-connected Web 2.0 life.

According to a new study by Proofpoint, an Internet security firm, of companies with 1,000 or more employees, 17 percent report having issues with employee’s use of social media. And, 8 percent of those companies report having actually dismissed someone for their behavior on sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. That is double from last year, where just 4 percent reported having to fire someone over social media misuse. Source: Mashable

As employers and companies increasingly search the “real time web” looking for customers who are angry about something, or happy about something, the odds are highly likely that they will also find employees talking about things that will generally tick off the company and lead to someone being shown the door. This is a huge drawback to working, because on the internet everything is cached, everything is remembered; including everything you ever posted online. This is why the public, private profiles are becoming so important.

We all make mistakes, like when I posted looking for a social media position and started getting phone calls from people who were wondering if they could have my job. I was annoyed with the reaction, and I was even more annoyed for that one moment of stupidity along the way. It was a mistake, didn’t really want to leave and don’t want to leave my job it is still fun and I still work with some very cool people. Like all jobs, it has its ups and downs, but that is ok, people expect that. It is in those unguarded moments though that we make our most horrific mistakes that lead to being fired. This is why if you want to talk about things online you need to have a private profile, something that people who you truly know and trust are privy to, and not your boss, not your high school chums, and not anyone you do not know personally.

The private profile gives you the opportunity to rant, much as you would on those long Sunday phone calls to your friends, or those nice meetings you have with your friends on Saturday night in a grotto bar somewhere in town. People generally do not monitor or even know that you and five of your friends went to a bar on Saturday night to talk about life, liberty and anything else. The difference is that everyone who is your Facebook friend (say some 500 of them) all knows that you hate your job if you post on your public profile, in a carefully controlled private profile, only a very small number of private people know that you hate your job. The message is contained to people you personally know and trust; it is also easier to find out who said what if your boss talks to you about your Facebook postings.

Something to consider, and if you have to rant in public you need to have a private profile that few if any know about, this is just safe social networking.