The growing need for a tact counselor

I wasn’t going to write this post. I hate coming off like the fun police or seeming Big Brotherish. To be frank, I thought we were done having this “the way you act online can alter your reputation and make it hard to get/keep a job” conversation.

But after talking to some people recently and seeing others’ social network profiles, it’s obvious their is a big-time need for a tact counselor, especially amongst young professionals. Sorry if that’s hard to hear, but it’s not surprising. Young pros have the least amount of professional work experience and many have been using social media for a long time as a personal communication tool. Heck, I’ve have had to work on several of these things over the past few years. Not No. 2 though. You’ll never see a picture of me in a bikini .

So, with that said, here are 14 online behaviors that could alter your reputation and make it hard to get/keep a job:

1. Dropping a lot of F-bombs in your tweets or status updates. You may not like hearing this, but doing this can kill your reputation. You are not Gary Vanyerchuk. And saying you don’t have a filter is crap. Worst excuse ever.
2. Posting a picture of yourself in a bikini as your avatar. C’mon people. Really? You think someone who’s going to hire you doesn’t look at your Facebook page and Twitter account? You think your current boss doesn’t? Think again. I have seen this as recently as a week ago. Happens more than you think.
3. Tweeting inappropriate things about a guy or girl you think is “hot.” A college student who I know recently interned with a client. I was very impressed by her ideas and work ethic. Last month she followed me on Twitter. I looked at her profile and saw things she tweeted at 1 a.m. about a guy she saw at a bar. They were inappropriate enough that I won’t repeat them in this post. And I will never recommend her anywhere. Changed my whole impression. Now you can call me a square, but realize this. The majority of people think like I do on this issue. Put the phone away after midnight.
4. Protecting your tweets. Nothing says “I have something to hide” like protecting your tweets. It’s a first impression thing. And I promise you it could be an issue when comparing job candidates.
5. Posting drunk photos of yourself or pictures of yourself holding drinks. Woohoo, you drink. You are so cool. Not what an employer wants to see when they are researching their employees. You don’t have to avoid the topic of drinking. But I don’t need to see picture of you and your friends playing beer pong. Or even a picture of you and your friends hanging out holding beer bottles. Don’t make these pictures your avatar or prominent on your Facebook page. But also, don’t send them to potential employers. Which leads us to No. 6…
6. Sending photos in with your resume and cover letter. Sorry, but it’s unprofessional. It says, you might choose me to work with your team because I’m attractive. If you’ve sent photos, that’s probably not what you’re trying to say. But that is what people think. And an employer is not legally allowed to hire someone because of their looks, so you put them and HR in an awkward situation. Not to mention, you are likely to become the joke of the hiring process at that company. And not the one who gets hired.
7. Grammar and AP style. I once sent a cover letter to The Kansas City Star. I didn’t capitalize Star. Do you know what they did with my resume? Trashed it. I guarantee you. Do not let your good ideas and what you bring to the table be trumped by errors in your writing. Learn to write for Twitter and for a client deliverable.
8. Avatars that don’t show your face. When people research your social networks, they don’t want to see a picture of your dog, or you in a costume, or a logo or something you photoshopped. Show your face and be professional. We don’t need the corny senior pic headshot. Just a picture of your face will do.
9. Jokes that aren’t funny. Some jokes that might be taken one way offline come across differently online and are not funny. Don’t be filling your status update feeds with these borderline types of posts. Even though the person you wrote it to may laugh, others watching might not.
10. Your boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse drama. Have you ever seen someone post a Facebook status update that their boyfriend/wife/husband cheated on them and they are getting a divorce or breaking up? I have. I felt bad for the person. And the next thing I thought was what does their employer think if they read this post by an employee who represents the company — remember, their is no separating personal and professional online anymore. Not possible.
11. Talking to different people the same way. I see way too many people address someone they are obviously good friends with online the same way they address another industry professional they have never met. You would never do that offline — I hope. Change your conversation style to fit who you are talking to. Don’t tweet “Hey, what’s up?” to someone you’ve never met before. Again, may be a generational thing, but I know some working professionals — especially in older generations — who would be offended by that.
12. TMI via status updates. Here is a scenario I’ve seen several times. Person posts over weekend that they were hanging out with friends, checks in on Foursquare at several different bars throughout the night. Person comes to work on Monday and complains of being tired because they had a “long weekend.” This is one where it differs online and offline. You may be able to joke with certain colleagues you know well about your long weekend. But when you post what you were doing on Facebook for all to see and then complain Monday morning, you look kind of foolish. Especially to upper management, who likely are the decision makers at your company.
13. To whom it may concern. Do not EVER write this in an e-mail or cover letter to a potential employer. If you do, you might as well write “I am too lazy to figure out the name of the person I am supposed to be sending this to so I just wrote To Whom it May Concern.” Most companies and agencies are never going to hire someone who does that.
14. Acting one way online and another way in person. Not sure why people do this or if they do it consciously. But what’s important for you to know is that people notice. I can count at least five times in the last year when someone came up to me and said “You know, so-and-so doesn’t act at all like they seem online.” And usually, it isn’t a positive. Because it’s a situation where someone is extremely outgoing and engaging on Facebook, Twitter or their blog, but then struggles to manage the F2F part of the relationship. If you can’t interact with people F2F in a tactful way, it will hurt your career aspirations.

So much of this is just thinking before acting. And I promise you these are things you bosses or potential bosses think about and notice.

Five to 10 years ago, I would have read a post like this and thought the person who wrote it was lame or a brown-noser. And five to 10 years later, I can tell you that all these things listed matter, whether you and I think they should or not.

So what did I leave out? Is there anything on the list with which you don’t agree? Have any “tactless” stories for us?

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