With all the social networking these days, it’s hard to keep track of what to put where! Where can i put funny pictures up? Is it ok to say LOL or FML on Twitter? Social media faux pas can definitely be more embarrassing than real life ones. I mean, how many people saw me trip over my own shoelace in the hall of my apartment vs. my 500 Facebook friends seeing me passed out on the couch with marker all over my face? Facebook wins, courtesy of that one friend you probably won’t speak to for a while. Uploading things to social networks is as easy as 1,2,3 and you’re bound to mistakenly send that naked picture to Facebook instead of your boyfriend.
With LinkedIn, this is where you should be showing off your professional, career driven side. But, it can get to be confusing when certain things that are acceptable on Facebook and Twitter, aren’t on LinkedIn. If a potential employer were to see that naked picture, you most definitely could lose out on a great job opportunity. Please remember to keep these examples OUT of your LinkedIn profile;
1. “LOL, OMG”
These are definitely OK for Facebook and especially Twitter, with limited character count but definitely not for LinkedIn. You don’t want your potential employer to be worried about whether or not you’ll include LOL in that huge client proposal. These types of words are classified as “netspeak” and it can get hard to differentiate. Pay attention to what you are typing. What am i typing about? Who is this message going to?
2. “I love my puppy Mindy, going out with my friends, and staying up late!”
LinkedIn is NOT the place to describe what you like to do in your spare time. The summary section gives you 2000 characters to describe yourself. While adding a personal flare is definitely recommended to help yourself stand out, don’t go too far. Write about what motivates you!
3. “It’s my employer’s fault i swear, they made a mistake and I got blamed.”
Making excuses is never a good thing to do. Even if what you’re saying is true, it didn’t change the outcome of what happened. Be honest without putting others down. You don’t have to give every detail about what happened at your last job but be positive. Stick to the awesome things you did while you were there, that will help you be the best at the current job you’re applying for.
4. Nothing.
Yes you have your past employers listed, but nothing about the specific tasks you completed. It is a hard job when employers are coming up with a list of responsibilities for the position they would like to hire someone for, so they pay attention and watch for those qualities to show up when they are searching through resumes on LinkedIn. If you had a long list of accomplishments, list them! You should be proud of what you have done, and employers love to see that!
5. “I’m not only the best employee there ever was, but the best person too and I am the only reason that company made any money.”
While this could be true (though not likely) I’m sure your potential employers will figure that out for themselves. When you tell someone you’re the greatest, they tend to doubt it, studies show. Honestly is always, always, always appreciated and to be honest, expected so don’t tell shades of the truth, we can tell.
