1. Do not write about your employer’s trade secret – The number one taboo of any organisation.  Never reveal your employer’s trade secret online.  That includes offline as well.  This is unethical and you can be brought to court for unethical malpractices of the employee.
2. Do not reveal your employer’s name when you are blogging any topic about the employer – As much as you can, do not include the names of your employer (the company name).  First, you will not be in the radar of the employer’s human-resource department online searches.  That will keep them off site.  Second, you will not end up in any defamation suit by writing negative posts about your employer.
3. Do not bitch about your colleagues online – Bitch about your colleagues and the pub or water dispenser.  Leave it there and then.  Do not bring it online.  By writing about negative comments of another individual in the organisation, you are leaving a negative impression of you online.  This to the eyes of the readers will illustrate your true character (that is to bitch about others).
4. Do not write about all the crazy parties you have – Most of us like to share about our fun part online.  That is why blogging is fun to us.  But be careful about what you post online even thought it is those partying pictures and videos.  You do not want to be seen by your employer cursing and swearing while you look totally wasted.  You do not want to be seen jumping into the river naked after you finished ten bottles of beer.
5. Think twice.  Be selective in what you write online – Remember, whatever you post online will be replicated and stored in different servers across the world.  It will be difficult to remove all the things that you posted online.  If privacy is an issue to you, it is best to stay away from social networks and blogs.  If privacy is not an issue to you, our advice is still keep minimal and be selective in the things you post.

To sum up, your information in social networks and blogs is public and can be viewed by the whole wide world (WWW).  That means, your current employer, and future employer.  You will also have problem removing all these information in future.  So before you write anything funny, make a dumb comment or post a not-so-intelligent partying video, do think twice.  You do not want those things you wrote in becoming something that hurt your career progression in future!

Sure, you can share the fun and stupidity that you have committed at last Saturday night’s party.  Sure you can talk about how insensitive the human-resource department and your employer when it comes to employee welfare.  However, all these can be read by someone on the internet.  This someone can be your employer or your human resource department.  All these information is published online (unless you make them personal).  You never now who is going to read these profiles you have online.  You do not want your boss to find out that you are bitching behind him, right?

That is for your current employer.  Your prospective employers and the recruitment agencies will also check on you with these profiles.  They will make assessment of who you are based on your profile.  They want to find out the “other side” of you.  They want to know, are you what you say you are in your resume and interview.

These profiles with the social network sites and blogs can be used as a double-edged sword.  On one hand, if you put great credentials about yourself such as your professional certifications, work experiences and achievements, your prospective employer will be more confident of you.  All these give the employer a positive impression of you.  On the other hand, if you focus on the negative aspects of work (talking about dumb bosses, boredom, bitching about colleagues, etc.), you likely risk getting a negative impression of you.  This goes for profiles that emphasizes on too much partying too!

Furthermore, these profiles are stored on the social network sites and blogs, which mean they may not belong to you even though they say your information belongs to you.  They can “delete” your record by marking it unreadable by the public.  They can make copies of record in some other data storage.  What does it all means?  Your information is still available online somewhere and it is difficult to remove them totally from the internet.

To sum up, your information in social networks and blogs is public and can be viewed by the whole wide world (WWW).  That means, your current employer, and future employer.  You will also have problem removing all these information in future.  So before you write anything funny, make a dumb comment or post a not-so-intelligent partying video, do think twice.  You do not want those things you wrote in becoming something that is used against your career progression!