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Learn how to avoid making social media mistakes that could hurt your career
Social Media Mistakes That Could Hurt
Your Career
by MediaLeaders Team on April 7, 2017 in Blog
At MediaLeaders,
we travel the
country teaching
businesses and
professionals how
to shine online to
strengthen their
brand.
So, we asked several
experts — how can
social media hurt your career and what are some tips businesses and
professionals can use to avoid making social media mistakes?
1. Grammar matters on social media
22SHARES
Frances Reimers
Frances Reimers, Firestarter,
@YourFireStarter
Thinking beyond the obvious social media
blunders that can torpedo your career, i.e.
inappropriate language and images, below
are a few additional faux pas to avoid:
Poor grammar – a person is a detriment to the company’s
brand if they consistently post content with poor grammar.
Oversharing – a person can appear unstable or
untrustworthy to employers, clients, and partners if they
overshare every intimate detail of their life.
Bucking culture – a person can appear to be not a team
player if their posts counter company culture. This
perception could prevent advancement within the company.
This blog post is brought
to you by Josh Ochs‘ new
book, Light, Bright & Polite
for Professionals which
helps companies create a
healthy culture around
employee social media
engagement and develop a social media policy. In order to
create a solid social media policy for your business, it’s
important to understand how your digital footprint and
social media mistakes can hurt your brand.
2. Understand that social media includes all online
communications
William Galkin
William Galkin, Galkin Law
First, it’s important to understand that social
media includes all online communications
such as standard social media (Facebook,
LinkedIn, Twitter), as well as blogs, WhatsApp,
Pinterest, email, chat rooms, networking sites,
and YouTube.
Use of social media can result in numerous types of liability that
will damage a career such as committing slander, liable,
deceptive advertising, and harassment.
The surest way to ruin a career is to post complaints and
derogatory comments about the employer, employees,
customers, vendors, etc. Also, if an employee makes public
reference to customers, transactions or relationships of the
employer that are not otherwise public – this could be very
damaging to the employer (and of course to the employee).
Employees should make sure that if they have a personal blog
that it states explicitly that the opinions are that of the individual
and not of the employer.
Employers should review these issues with employees and
prepare a written guide. The guide should include the proper
role of social media as part of a business’s marketing and
human resources initiatives.
3. It’s okay to vent, just don’t do it on social media
Jayne Hitchcock, Working to Halt Online Abuse
Putting out too much information, criticizing people or
Jayne Hitchcock
Eden Gillott Bowe
companies (especially where you currently
work), and posting questionable photos are
ways you can hurt your career using social
media. Don’t get too personal – it’s okay to say
you’re having a lousy day, but don’t go into it.
You can text someone if you need to vent.
Posting a photo of you having a beer or drink
occasionally is okay, just don’t post numerous photos of you
drinking. Also skip overtly sexual photos, giving the �nger,
smoking anything, or posing with a gun.
4. Be intentional and mindful of how you interact
online
Eden Gillott Bowe, Gillott Communications
Ask yourself, “If my employer or customer saw
this, would I care if I got passed over for that
new job or missed out on a sale?”
Stop and consider how what you’re posting,
liking, or associating yourself with on social
media can be interpreted. Some will argue that it’s not fair
because that’s who you really are. Others will say it’s a hassle
and not realistic. It will take some time to retrain your brain, but
it’s well-worth it.
5. Posts can never be deleted
Maggie Aland, Fit Small Business, @FitSmallBiz
Social media is a powerful tool that can have a devastating
impact on your career if you’re not careful. You may think that
posts which are not well thought out can be deleted, however, a
Maggie Aland
Matt Sweetwood
quick screenshot of what you posted can live
on for eternity. Avoid this type of scandal by
hiring someone to either post on social media
on your behalf, or read through everything
before you hit send. A second pair of eyes will
ensure that you are not posting anything that
could have a negative impact.
6. Ensure that your social media matches your
resume
Matt Sweetwood, beBee
It comes down to the Mom test. Would your
mother approve of what you post? With 84%
of hiring managers using social media to learn
more about you, your Facebook and
Instagram posts are a re�ection of who you
are, good or bad. Pictured with an alcoholic
beverage? Ranting on politics? Is this something you want your
employer, future employer, or client to see? Speaking of images,
you must have professional photos throughout your social
media accounts and your pro�les should match your resume
exactly.
7. Use social media to appeal as a worthy job
candidate
Becky Lairson, Socially Jen and Co., @SociallyJenandCo
We live in a time when social media can, in fact, make or break
your career. If you decide to use social media, both your
personal and professional accounts can be thoroughly vetted by
both prospective clients and employers. If you choose to avoid
Mindi Rosser
Becky Lairson
social media altogether, you can be looked
over before the hiring process even begins.
Professionals who use social media well can
build their personal brand making themselves
appeal as a worthy candidate before ever
setting foot in an interview. Social media now
acts as a resume that can span back in time for years.
8. Optimize your LinkedIn pro�le for search
Mindi Rosser, Mindi Rosser Marketing,
@MindiRRosser
Your LinkedIn pro�le could be severely
damaging your career if it is not optimized.
Many people think that it’s enough to have a
LinkedIn pro�le that lists their company,
position, and a few prior jobs. What they don’t
realize is that if you are job-hunting or building your brand, you
must have an SEO-optimized LinkedIn pro�le, a high-resolution
professional headshot, a compelling summary and an attention-
grabbing headline. It’s also critical that you actively engage on
LinkedIn by interacting with status updates and sharing content.
If you’re not, your competitors are. And, you won’t land the job.
9. Build a positive reputation by posting well-
written and engaging content
Valerie Streif, Mentat
One subtle social media mistake that can hurt your career (that
isn’t as obvious as posting drunk pictures of yourself or racist
content on your company’s Twitter account) is posting articles or
Valerie Streif
We wrote a book! It features
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other content too frequently. Spending a lot
of money and e�ort into having people write
a lot of mediocre content just for the sake of
posting often has been shown to not gain
much traction for a company and can be a
huge waste of time and resources.
Instead, it’s important to focus on posting strategic, well-written
articles or other content, bonus points if they are relevant to any
current news stories. This can have a far more meaningful
impact on your social media engagement with your followers
and helps to prevent you from becoming labeled as a clickbait-
generating site, which can greatly damage your company’s
reputation.
22SHARES
Ą Do you know what In�uencer Relationship Management is?
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About MediaLeaders Team
MediaLeaders creates marketing and digital best practices for businesses and
professionals. We deliver trends & tactics to thousands of our members via webinars,
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