I’ve written about Facebook before on this blog.  In fact, many people have written about Facebook.  It’s a growing online social network that is helping people get and stay in touch, and it’s grown into a huge Internet entity.

It’s pretty new, having only been around since February 2004, and for people who joined Facebook in college, it’s proving to be difficult to learn how to accommodate this school-time remnant into a professional context.

An article in the Washington Post today addresses this topic by highlighting a situation a few teachers have recently found themselves in. These teachers have gotten into some hot water after posting inappropriate, suggestive, or outright risqué items on their Facebook profiles.

For the most part, the teachers thought their profiles were private and only viewable by friends. What they did not realize was that their profiles were visible to everyone in their network, including their students in some cases.

Some school districts are so alarmed by this trend that they’re taking proactive measures to ensure this kind of incident doesn’t happen at their school. These proactive measures can include a review of a prospective teacher’s Facebook profile during the job interview.

For the most part, it seems like the teachers interviewed for this article see little wrong with having inappropriate items in their profiles. They insist that their Facebook profiles are a part of their personal lives and demand that privacy for themselves.  What these teachers should have realized is that by making their profiles public, they were exposing their students and colleagues to scandalous and upsetting information.  When interviewed for the story, these teachers were surprised that their profiles were public and most acted quickly to change them back.  Unfortunately, the damage was already done at that point.

Facebook is good fun and a great way to keep up with friends, but it can really jeopardize your career if you’re not paying attention.  I fully agree that people are entitled to a private life, but that private life should be kept that way: private, not accessible to anyone with a computer and an Internet connection. 

Here are some tips to help you watch out for common Facebook pitfalls:

• Make your profile private.  To do this, look up at the top right corner of the page once you’ve logged in to Facebook.  Click on “Privacy” and then click on “Profile.”  You will see a variety of settings for every aspect of information in your profile, and it would be wise to set your settings to “Friends only” for all aspects of your Facebook profile if you intend to use it to reflect your personal, not professional life.
• Know your industry.  Obviously, there are different standards of behavior for different industries.  Know your industry well enough to know what will or won’t upset the people you work with should they happen to view your profile.  As noted in the Post article, a Special Education teacher with a bumper sticker that says “You’re a retard, but I love you” will undoubtedly offend colleagues and students and is putting their job in jeopardy.
• Keep your illegal and questionable activities to yourself.  As this information is out on the Internet, don’t post items that could either get your arrested or make your mother blush.  These items have a way of coming back around like bad pennies, and the last thing you want is for ancient history to cost you a job in the future.