Social Networking Dos and Don'ts

A protege of mine asked me to follow her on Twitter. After receiving 5 straight Tweets in a row about how bored she was with a project, I emailed her suggesting that she wasn’t putting forward a positive professional brand. A few weeks earlier I had met via a google search, Karen Armon, author of Market Your Potential, Not Your Past. In a discussion with her we talked about the importance of a having a positive profile when potential clients, customers, employers search you out on the internet (and they will.) These two experiences got me thinking about Social Networking Dos and Don’ts.

From the perspective of building, nurturing and furthering a strong professional/leadership brand through social networking, I offer these 10 important DOs and DON’Ts:

1. DON’T share Tweets that make you look bored, whiny, frivolous, or as a non-participant in the business world. A personal entry on occasion is a good thing, but keep the ratio higher on sharing info of interest and lower on sharing your dinner menu. As a matter of fact, don’t in any social networking realm create the impression that you are an unprofessional slacker.

2. DO Clean up your school-based profiles and any others that don’t present you in a light that an employer would consider positive. This one has gotten enough play with career counselors and the press. Enough said.

3. DO have a LinkedIn profile and begin to use it. Make sure that your profile is a marketing tool that pitches you as a positive problem-solver and leader in your field.

4. DO share (to MySpace, Facebook, etc.) articles about your profession, company, industry, leadership, the world at large. This means you have to be reading same.

5. DON’T share articles about the latest fashions, hottest nail polish colors, trendiest boutiques… unless you’re in or would like to move into the retail or fashion industry.

6. DO begin to read online sources for business, industry and professional news – business papers, mags, blogs, etc. This is how you find info to share. For example, search YouTube for “Indra Nooyi” and you’ll find inspiring interviews she’s given (she’s the CEO of PepsiCo, by the way.) Anne Mulcahy, CEO Xerox is there as well with a superb summary on Xerox’ turnaround. These would be gems to share with your friends – and also help raise the profile of the meager 3% of Fortune 500 women CEOs.

7. DO make intelligent comments on stories of interest. (Women have a very low profile in most of these areas, help raise it!) The PINK site is a friendly site to begin with.

8. DO join online communities of like-minded business/professional people. You can join the PINK community, LinkedIn has a variety of groups (search them) and many other blogs and publication sites expect you to join in order to be able to post comments.

9. DO splurge on a professional photo – it doesn’t have to be stuffy, but it should be business-friendly. Your company might have a photographer who would do this for you.

10. DON’T leave this page without sharing it!

What additional Dos and Don’ts do you have to share?

Network ON!
By Susan Colantuono