Now the purpose of this post is not to evangelise the benefits of dropping digital breadcrumbs all over the place but in an environment of real time communications; an environment where conversations and content remain in the ether forever to give you an overview of how to conduct yourself.

So let’s just give this a little context

I said I wasn’t going to evangelise about the benefits of dropping digital breadcrumbs all over the place but let’s face it’s happening more and more these days and that has massive implications.

The sheer amount of content being produced is growing at an incredible rate as more and more are getting involved in blogging, uploading video and photography, Twitter and Facebook to name the big two social platforms. With Google + now on the scene it can seem like the whole web is going social. As far as I am concerned that’s not a bad thing but with this ability to post random thoughts and get involved in conversations with people on the other side of the globe come both risks and responsibilities.

The most important thing to remember is that what you do online is permanent; yes you can take down a post, delete a tweet or close an account. The fact still remains that if it’s been online it will stay online somehow somewhere and as time goes by digging up the older stuff will become increasingly easier.

What I don’t want to do is put the fear of the gods into you as we are after all dealing with social media after all and it’s designed to be fun interesting and engaging. I am a big believer in users posting what they want and be done with it as it will act as a filter. It will filter in likeminded people and filter out those that don’t get it BUT that can be fairly risky behaviour. Risky because in most cases anyone can see what you are up to. Risky, because that could include your clients, suppliers, employer, employees or professional body.

Now I am not suggesting that the odd photo of you enjoying yourself at the weekend is a bad thing as let’s face it onlookers should be more worried about you if you didn’t have a life or do anything interesting at the weekend. But if you do get up to compromising activities it’s probably best not shared online so next time you get snapped with a rolled up tenner in your hand with a driven look on your face or lying face down in the gutter after one too many shandies resist the urge to share it with the world.

I was once told a simple piece of advice that I will share with you here:

“if you don’t want your grandchildren to see it don’t post it on Facebook.”

Now you can expand that one liner to if you don’t want your family, customers, suppliers, employers to see it don’t post it on Facebook. The reality is though that little consider this and as a result we are all sitting on a HR timebomb. Employers will increasingly have to deal with online misdemeanors and people will be getting those dream jobs or not on the basis of how they conducted themselves in the past.

So here are a three tips that I share with my clients about how to conduct themselves online:

1. Don’t be an idiot, think about the consequences of your actions as they do exist
2. Remember your pleases and thank you’s as they are free but also invaluable
3. If you are throwing mud you are losing ground