In the modern age however, presentation has extended further than our physical exposure to others. Now, based on who you decide to be on your social media, that image is made public for people to see – and not just your friends and relatives, but your officemates, potential clients, and your boss, too.

It’s important to maintain a professional image that communicates to all your circles simultaneously the best of who you are, and also important to avoid communicating the wrong idea. Here are three major ways you can maintain your Network Hygiene to keep things clean and professional:

A Neat Network

Think back to the last time you were in a rush to find an important document – maybe for a class or a job, and then discovering that document is buried beneath a sea of random papers and files? It wasn’t fun to look at all that clutter, let alone dig through all of that to find something so important, I imagine. Your social media accounts aren’t all that different.

When people look you up on social media, a big part of effective self-presentation to the viewer is making sure their eyes want to stay on the page. The best way to do that is to make sure your profile is pleasant to look at. This can be as simple as keeping the themes of the posts you create or share consistent, and keeping your profile picture and cover photo neat, and appropriate. If the platform in question allows you the freedom to layout certain elements on your profile, it’s never a bad idea to try and see what would look most appropriate for your branding.

Posting Proper

Often times, users will see social media as a way to communicate ideas or talk about their day with a specific group of people – usually their friends, or family members. Depending on how filtered you choose to be with what you post, much of what is public will always be left up to interpretation. The best way to avoid having sensitive discussions be seen by those you work with is to keep these conversations in your direct messaging inbox.

It is also important to be mindful of what discussion you partake in publicly online, as comment strings and posts can easily be taken out of context, and comments from either party can be deleted.

 The Name Game

If you were born any time during the 90’s, chances are you’ve created an email address solely for use on gaming platforms. These could sound as ridiculous as you wanted, as your display name did not have to match this email (regardless of however strange your display name was, as well.) However, if you are in fact born in the 90’s and are reading this, chances are your boss would not be particularly thrilled to receive a work email from “xXboychaos2525Xx@gmail.com.”

When emailing anyone you are working with, it is important to have a work email that is entirely separate from any email address you might have that you use for recreational purposes. It is a simple thing to be mindful of, but is often overlooked, and can result in rather embarrassing interactions between you and anyone in the workplace.