Can Social Media Kill Your Career?

Ruining your career can be pretty easy without any help, just ask anyone who hovered around the punch bowl too long at the Christmas Party, but now it seems it can be even easier with the help of social media.

Business has spilled into the realms of blogs, Youtube, and even Facebook. Places that had generally been the playgrounds of a younger, media savvy crowd are now teeming with business types and CEOs. Let's take the example of Sarah Lacy and her recent interview of Mark Zuckerberg a few days ago at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival. This is explained well by Caroline McCarthy's blog. Lacy made the mistake of asking boring questions, talking about herself too much, and generally having a bad interview of one the most interesting Internet personalities around. Because of social media, this interview was heard round the world via Twitter, Youtube, bloggers, and every other conceivable kind of outlet available. What might have been a small media faux pas and a slap on the wrist turned into a major media event.

The point of this example is, social media makes everything more accessible. What started as college kids getting nervous about potential employers seeing their Facebook pages has turned into colleagues hoping their meeting blunders aren't on Youtube and interviewers having to relive their awful mistakes over and over in the public eye. Advertisers must take note that while social media is a great tool to reach your demographic, the content that you are using is still very important. Allowing your new marketing intern to start a company blog isn't as harmless as it may seem. Getting some help from experts probably isn't a bad idea.

Lastly, (do I even have to say it?), be careful with your Facebook pages, blogs, networks, forums, etc. when you are using them in a business environment! Social Media is a powerful tool that can launch careers and turn businesses around but can also be the equivalent of that bad Christmas Party, that the whole world can see.