How to Improve Your Facebook Profile: Play it Smart With Friends and Potential Employers
Think LinkedIn is the only social network that potential employers use to find and judge you? Wrong. Here's how to improve your Facebook profile to be more considerate to your friends, plus play it safe and smart with present and future work colleagues.
"You need to be somewhat personal on Facebook or people think you're using incorrectly," she says.
So you might compromise a bit, excluding highly personal information while sharing some of the safer stuff. In the basic information fields, Facebook gives you the option to include your religion and politics. Because (in most lines of work) you wouldn't touch those two hot-button topics in a meeting or on your resume — and let's face it, your close friends know your affiliations in those categories anyway — there's really no point in including it, Dixson says.
But, on the other hand, you should feel free to have at it a bit more in the fields for things like music, interests, movies, activities, etc. Yes, a very discerning Friend could read between the lines of your choices here, but it's a risk worth taking if you want to appear social and build social capital.
Many times, Dixson says, you might find some common ground in these areas with professional contacts, leading to a better relationship that can help you in business.
Personal Relationships Matter
There's one other category that's a bit of judgment call, and that's the "relationship status" field in Facebook. On one hand, you must choose whether or not you want to share if you're married or in a significant relationship.
If your spouse or significant other is on Facebook, you have the option to link to their name and profile: "In a relationship with Jane Smith," for instance.
Dixson says some people, even if in relationships, don't fill out the field altogether. Others, she says, choose to add "In a relationship" or "Married" but not add the link to their spouse's or significant others name, believing it's nobody's business.
If you're single, or find that you have relationships not on solid footing, Dixson says, it may be wise not to fill out the field at all. If, for instance, you leave a relationship and that bit of information is broadcasted in your Friends' newsfeeds (which, again, you could shut off in the privacy settings), you don't want a co-worker correlating you being irritable one day at work to that event.
Watch Out for Guilt by Association
Though it's not right, you can be judged professionally by associating yourself with people who behave badly. Voters saw this in Barack Obama's run for the toughest job interview process in the country as his opponents tried to tie him to the 1960s anti-war activist, William Ayers.
