Okay, okay. So this isn’t exactly an original thought. But I’m still a bit amazed at the lack of discretion demonstrated by people who mix their personal and professional brands in social media. It’s not the mixing of personal and professional that is the problem, though. The problem lies in doing it poorly and failing to realize the consequences of unprofessional personal actions in an increasingly public information environment.

Here are seven ways to make sure you ruin your chances of maintaining an image of professionalism online.

mistakes despair1. Contact a potential employer from an account with an avatar photo of you in a bikini. Unless, of course, you’re looking for a bikini modeling position. Then, by all means don’t change your avatar when seeking a position.

2. Don’t delete the pictures of you doing body shots at the night club last weekend. Keep them up there on your Flickr page as long as possible. It makes it much easier for potential employers and colleagues to judge your decision-making ability.

3. Use crude and inappropriate language in your posts and comments on your own pages and your friends’ pages. Never mind the fact that those posts are indexed by Google and attributed to you. Don’t bother thinking about a client or an employer’s impression of you based on your language. (Hint: the F word is generally not well-received in the workplace. Some exceptions do exist, but unless you know which ones, you’re better off avoiding it…)

4. Badmouth your boss, the company for which you work, your colleagues or your clients in your posts, tweets or status updates. That always goes over well. Even when you think you’re being coy and no one knows who you’re talking about. They usually know who you’re talking about. (Calling him Mr. Bossman isn’t as coy as you think.)

5. Spend company time building your personal brand online. While you may work for an employer who allows social media or even encourages it, the intent is that you will be doing it for the benefit of the organization. (Time stamps tend to expose your actions during work hours, as you post on your best friend’s pictures of her new kitten.)

6. Ignore your employer’s social media/communications policy and share proprietary or restricted information with your friends, fans and/or followers.

7. Take an extreme view in your comments/posts in any direction on religious, political or social views. Unless, of course you are expected to do so for your job in a religious, political or social activism-related role. Just know that it may limit your appeal to a broader group of potential employers at a later date. (e.g. commenting on your opinion of the President’s most recent actions is your call. Just know that about 50% of the population disagrees with you, regardless of your position. And some of them might be in a position to make a call about your professional judgment in the future.)

You don’t have to be a vanilla, boring, paranoid person to maintain a professional image in social media. However, you do need to exercise discretion if you want to ensure that you put forth the best possible image. Employers do check social media platforms to determine whether you have the professional discretion that it will take to succeed in your career. Social media can serve to boost your professional image in many ways. Just make sure you don’t mess it up for yourself: Google and Bing yourself. You might be amazed at what you will find. And knowing what’s out there is half the battle.

What would you add to the list? What ridiculous things have you seen coworkers or applicants do or fail to do within social media? We’d love to hear about them. We could even start a Wall of Shame for the best of the bunch… (No names, please.)

Photo credit: despair.com. (Quite possibly the funniest site on the Web. So smart.)

(This particular post is reposted from Gal’s Guide, where it first appeared on 10.21.09)