Everage

Stories abound on the net about professionals who forgot their professional role when creating content on sites like Facebook, Twitter and the like. Health insurance claims have been rejected because a Facebook entry showed contradictory physical behavior to the person's claim. I know of people who have been fired because they forgot or didn't know that supervisors, executives and/or HR departments are spending time on the net "following" (tracking) employees.

There is another type of online behavior that can impact your career. Many companies are creating online communities for the purpose of making a more direct connection with their target market. This could be a community of your clients or your prospects. In either event, if you have been invited to participate in the community the degree to which you participate can be critical to your perceived value as an employee and evangelist for your brand. Participate too little and you're not bringing enough to the table in creating useful online content. Participate too much and your content might be quickly passed over by readers who see you as a shill for the company. You want to hit the mark between the two extreme; this will show your superiors and your HR department that your everage is either stable or slowly increasing. Employers are looking for consistency and/or incremental improvements - your everage will be used to gauge whether you are meeting the needs of your company in contributing to their online presence.