How to work-proof your Facebook page

When I finished my first real job after college, a 6 month internship, I thought it would be funny to write a blog post on my MySpace page. The title of the blog entry was, “How to work it at a public relations firm.” Among the list of 10 “how-to’s”, I included, “#10: Flash your Hello Kitty decorations to your sisters with pride in your cube like your sorority Greek letters,” and “#3: Do the cat walk down the office hallway with your Louis Vuitton bag. The bigger and uglier, the better.”

A few days later a fellow intern found my public post and forwarded my Myspace blog to the entire office. I was mortified! Needless to say, my lack of common sense at the time burned bridges with great colleagues and professional contacts. It also cost me my reputation in the public relations industry.

Learn from my mistake, and don’t let your online social network such as MySpace, Facebook, or Twitter ruin your professional reputation. Here are some tips on how to work-proof your Facebook page:

1. Make your profile and photo albums private to the public

You’ve heard horror stories about candidates getting a great job offer rescinded or an MBA candidate losing their offer at their dream business school because a recruiter found inappropriate content on their Facebook page. RSS feeds, photo tags, and updates can spin beyond your control. If you don’t change your account settings to private, anybody in your alumni, work, or city network can click on your profile or photo album and see all of the contents on your Facebook page. Make your profile and photo albums private, and only allow your friends in your network see the contents of your page.

How: Click on settings, privacy settings, profile, and change the settings so that only friends can see your page.

2. Create separate “friends’ lists” and use the limited profile

What happens after business hours stays after business hours. Your best friends and weekend buddies love seeing your status updates and photo albums, but colleagues and professional contacts don’t always have to know what your life entails after 9 to 5. Create separate “friends’ lists” for colleagues, and put your professional contacts on a limited profile view to control the content on your page they may have access to.

How: Click on friends. Scroll to the bottom left side of your page, and click “create” to create a new friends’ list. You will then be prompted to select which contents on your page people on this list have access to. Conversely, you can add them on your “limited profile” list and also do the same.

3. Disable your “View Pictures of Me”

We all have paparazzi friends who bring their camera everywhere and take pictures of everything. They will shamelessly tag photos of you doing keg stands at Bay To Breakers, or showing off your Friday night dance moves at Le Colonial. Once you are tagged, all of your friends and colleagues will get an RSS feed notification showing that you have been tagged… keg standing. While these weekend photos make your friends laugh, recruiters and colleagues will think otherwise. Disable your “view pictures of me” feature so that you can stay in control of which photos of you get posted online.

How: Click on settings, privacy settings, profile, and change the “photos tagged of me” feature so that nobody can see photos tagged of you, including friends.

4. Disable your “Wall”

“See you at Medjool’s rooftop at 10:30 p.m.!” “How did your sushi date at Ozumo’s go last night? ;)"  "You should've steered clear of that last Harry's mango mojito!” When your friends write messages on your wall posts, it leaves an open outlet for the whole world to track your conversations and see what you are up to after business hours. Disable your “wall” so that you can only receive inbox messages and keep your private life outside of work to yourself.

How: Click on settings, privacy settings, profile, and unclick “friends may post to my wall.”

5. Use your common sense

They say that it takes years to build up your professional reputation, and only seconds to ruin it. Remember that what gets posted on Facebook doesn’t stay on Facebook. Once somebody finds information, photos, or anything that raises an eyebrow, all they have to do is hit send and forward that to your boss, potential company, or client. So think twice before you post anything up because there are just some things like your professional life where you will not always be given a second chance. It’s simply not worth it.

For more advice about managing your online reputation, read my article, "How to work-proof your online reputation and Google search results."

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Christine features networking events, association mixers, career advice, and social networking tips for San Francisco's young professionals. Please email her at SFYoungProfessional@gmail.com if you have any questions or want to see any stories covered.

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