ChickSpeak

If you are reading this, then you are probably impeccably classy, have flawless manners, and have never appeared on-line inappropriately dressed, drunk, unconscious, or in a comprising position of any sorts… right?

The fabulous, confident, classy female that you are certainly wouldn’t join various social networking groups like ”Thirty Reasons Girls Should Call It a Night,” a collection of embarrassing photos of girls too inebriated to realize their photos are being taken by friend or enemies and posted on facebook. I am being a bit tongue and cheek in writing this, as most, if not all, of the young women on this group and in others of the same yolk are probably classy and smart, but just not acting like it in these moments captured on camera.

Not only is this harmful to your current reputation, but this documented behaviour has a very good chance of being harmful to your professional reputation as well. It could even impact you by not getting a job that your applied for or losing a current job or respect at work.

Ladies, you’ve worked way to hard too throw it all away on an inappropriate screen name, indecent photo, or crude comments posted by your friends.

I’m not just someone preaching on-line etiquette to future job applicants, but as someone who is a member of Facebook, MySpace, and a few other social networking sites, I have spent significant amounts of time perusing and doing searches on these sites.

No, I am not a weirdo, I am a Recruiter for companies interested in hiring new talent. I know first hand that employers today are looking for your track-record (and at times, poor judgements) to come up on-line; a background check of sorts.

According to the Ponemon Institute, a privacy research organization, 43 percent of hiring mangers have nixed a potential candidate based on information they found about them on-line. One consultant was quoted in the New York Post as saying “Your Google Results are your new resume.”

As a member of a generation that grew up with Facebook and MySpace, I ,too, have been guilty of posting silly pictures, or having a few quotes on my MySpace page that I would not want my anyone but my closest friends to see. When I took a job at a prominent financial firm, I promptly took it down. I knew that I did not want potential candidates or my co-workers finding my information and having to worry if anyone I knew had posted an unflattering or unprofessional quote. I won’t lie, it was a bummer at the time, but as part of growing up, I got over it.

I spent a lot of time creating that page, posting pictures, organizing slide shows, finding the perfect background. It was sad to let it go. But what would have been worse would have been to be let go from my job because of something on that page. Using a screen name may not protect you either, since pictures can cause you to be recognized even if your name is not linked to your image.

The fact is that being on-line is not anonymous; it never has been. Pictures of you - gulp- doing beer bongs or even having drinks in your hands, along with comments that others may find offensive or derogatory in anyway can hurt you. It may seem funny at the time, but you won’t be laughing if you find that you did not get a coveted position because of a social networking page or a comment that one of your friends posted. Don’t risk it.

Good news is that the team here at ChickSpeak has kept all of this in mind when we created our member section. Privacy is highlighted and your postings are not searchable by random googlers. You can keep a private journal or blog with various levels of settings, and done under the premise that other members are women and that we all are acting and writing in line with our mission of “Inspiring big dreams, strong values and success,” both in ourselves and in others. Need to vent? Sure- just keep the bad words at bay and realize that your online posts and pics are a reflection of you and our community in real life. Period.

It’s hard to have to realize that your actions in college or on your own time could potentially harm your professional life or reputation, but just like you need to think before you drink, you need to think before you post. The web is public access all the time 24 hours a day 365 days a year. At the very least, make your profile private so only those who have your permission can fully access your page. This still is not 100% foolproof, as you can still be tagged in photos and on other’s pages through your comments and updates.

Not every potential employer will check too see what you’ve been up to on social networking sites, and not all of them that do will be offended or put off by what you have or don’t have on the page, but I would recommend caution. Along the lines of a previous article talking about juicycampus.com, networking slander goes beyond the college-age set.

According to Readers Digest, a woman who was a student at Yale Law School applied to 16 firms for a summer associate program but didn’t get a single offer. She later found out that students had spread rumors about her on a law school on line forum. They made very serious claims about her in graphic detail that she disputed as being untrue. She ended up hiring a a lawyer who went to work removing said material and finding out who posted the material. They are not suing the home site of the discussion board, who would not cooperate with the investigation. The site has since lost advertising dollars and the site administrator was revoked an offer from a firm that had heard about the controversy. So acting out on-line does have consequences prior to popular belief.

Just like in real life, have fun, be responsible and think about your actions before you post them on-line for the whole world to see. Take it from me… I might recruit you to work for a big company one day!