Networking websites, and the blurring of lines
On a long car ride recently, I was having a conversation about the blurring of personal and professional lines on the Internet.
If you’re in a position of influence within your company, the odds are more likely that, if you’re Googled, something related to your work will come up in the results. And that’s in addition to anything you might be doing in your personal life online – anything political, say, or hobby-related.
That was the start of the line blurring between your personal and professional presence online.
But with networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn (among dozens of others) now in their ascendancy, the line is not only blurring, it’s disappearing altogether. And what does that mean for your executive career?
If you’re using a site like Facebook for your networking, it could mean a great deal, as Netshare CEO Kathy Simmons notes in her blog. Once designed only for college students to find and connect with each other online, the first users of Facebook are climbing the corporate ladder – and bringing their undergraduate history with them, pictures and all.
Now, the documented excesses of college are few and far between – drunken photos only make news because they’re the exception, not the norm. That said, it stands to reason that the more networking sites out there, for professional and personal purposes, the more likely your professional and personal identities will start to merge into one on the Web.
What does that mean for you and your networking? Simply put, consider these two thoughts:
1. With all the social networking sites available out there, before you jump in, ask yourself which one – just one for now – will serve your career best? Concentrate you energy on that one for now. You don’t want to join a bunch, then neglect them because you can’t keep up.
2. Look at your current social networking profiles, and ask yourself first whether you care – would it matter to you if you lost out on a job offer because of something about you online? And if you do care, what can you change to make your profile more attractive in the eyes of other networked professionals in your desired industry?
Online social networks are a wonderful new tool for executives, professionals, and high-level managers. But they must be used judiciously, because they represent you as certainly as your resume does – for good or for ill.
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