You’d be surprised at the number of people that actually look at your Facebook account. Because there isn’t an official way to tell who’s been visiting your page, it may seem like no one ever does unless they post on your wall or comment on a photo. Because so many people see our Facebook accounts, it’s important to be selective when posting links, comments, status updates, and photos. You never know when either a potential employer or customer is going to visit your page, so when they do you want to make sure no incriminating content is anywhere to be seen.
Because so much information on our personal lives is now documented on Facebook, many companies who are hiring potential employees will now consider the information they see on Facebook accounts and use what they see to determine whether a job candidate is fit for the role. In fact, companies are now consulting with agencies that specialize in researching Facebook and social media accounts in order to dig up any unacceptable personal information. If you think this is a violation of your rights, think again. Anything you put on Facebook is considered part of the public domain and companies will assess your account accordingly.
By following these Facebook Etiquette Guidelines, your page should be safe from any executive or customer eyebrow raisings and traffic to your insurance website should not go down. Consider:
Photos: Try to keep photos of you relatively tame. You don’t want too many pictures that show you drinking. If you are drinking in a photo, make sure you don’t look sloppy or out of control. Holding a beer or glass of wine is okay, but funneling or “shotgunning” takes it too far and will portray you as a party animal. Also, any photo that shows you doing something illegal is a definite no-no.
Language: Using bad language like swear words is not a good habit to get into on Facebook. Swearing lowers your credibility among others and is just simply not needed. You don’t need to swear in order to emphasize how awesome something was the night before or while commenting on your friend’s new car. In addition to swearing, avoid any language that sounds racist or prejudice. In some ways, looking like a racist is worse than dropping an F bomb, so keep that in mind.
Personal Info and Posting: For your personal information, it’s best to keep it short and professional.. Many Facebook users will list “getting drunk” under their hobbies, and this is something to avoid. Any information you provide that makes you seem immature or irresponsible should obviously be kept away from your profile.
Even posts on your Facebook page need to remain clean. If you’re posting a link, make sure the content isn’t vulgar or overtly violent. Funny videos and newsworthy links are appropriate, but anything that lies outside of that should be kept away from the public domain. If a friend posts something inappropriate or inconsiderate on your wall, delete it immediately. Facebook thankfully makes it easy to delete any wall post or comment with one click in the upper right hand side of the box.
Although our Facebook accounts are about our lives and sharing information with our friends, we need to uphold a certain level of integrity with anything we put on them. Imagine if a potential customer was considering your agency for insurance help and someone on your staff had unacceptable material on their Facebook page. Imagine if this customer decided not to pursue business with your agency as a result. Keep it simple, keep it clean, and keep it fun; you never know who’s going to view your page.