Social networking on the Internet is all the rage these days, if the mushrooming of CFO-focused groups in sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter is any indication. A simple search will turn up such professional groups as “Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Network,” “China CFO,” and “Super CFO” on LinkedIn and “Indian CEO, CFO, CA, CS, ICWA, CFA, Finance, Corporate & Legal Professional” on Facebook.
It’s the digital equivalent of the face-to-face networking that business folks have always done, whether in industry conferences, Rotary clubs, cocktail parties, golfing trips or other social occasions. Tech-savvy executives see e-social networking as an additional tool for this time-honoured rite, and also invaluable as a free marketing vehicle for the business and for maintaining business contacts.
“Everyone is using the Internet and mobile devices to work with each other,” observes Charles Beard, CIO at Fortune 500 company
Science Applications International Corporation. “That’s where we see the promise of things like social networking.” There are caveats, however. What many don’t realize is that their status updates or casual comments left on a discussion board can potentially jeopardize their company or even their career. “The flip side [of Web social media] is we’re exposed to the dark side of cyberspace,” says Beard.
Beware the Pitfalls
It’s not difficult to imagine what some of that dark side may be. “If your company is supposed to be going through an M&A soon and you post that you’re going on a skiing holiday during that time, that’s going to raise a lot of eyebrows and cause people to wonder what’s happening to that merger,” says a CFO of a major garment retailer in Hong Kong.
He is, for one, staying away from the online business discussion and networking groups, though not from the social networking sites. “I’m very concerned [about how it affects my company], so I will not post any sensitive information,” he says. Social networking “is for fun,” the CFO adds. “It shouldn’t have anything to do with what you’re doing at work.”
But the problem is that “fun” and “work” on the Internet are not always mutually exclusive. Your list of friends on Facebook, for example, can be a hodgepodge of personal and business contacts. And even for those who make a clean separation between their personal and their professional lives by keeping two separate lists or profiles, just throwing a question out there to ask the opinion of your peers can be a gamble.
The danger isn’t just in comments that can lead others to pinpoint your upcoming schedule or recent activities — the danger is that your competition could be reading into what you’re thinking by way of your posts. According to a
survey about social media use in the U.S. by the Minneapolis-based advertising agency
Russell Herder and law firm
Ethos Business Law, 49% of U.S. corporate executives believe that using social media could damage company reputation. And 47% say they routinely monitor their competitors’ use of social networking.
In that case, discussion posts like this could well be a potential risk: “Does anyone have any leads regarding any openings as a Law Firm CFO/Controller/Finance Director in the Philadelphia area?” With the user’s name and job position listed right next to the query, it wouldn’t take much for a competitor to figure out that this CFO may be ready to skip town — and his current job.
It’s also easy to fall into the trap of showing off even on the most professional of networking sites. “Some degree of self-promotion is more necessary now than it was in the past,” says Jean Twenge, who is associate professor of psychology at
San Diego State University and author of
The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement. “However, there is a big difference between being able to talk about your strengths at a job interview and talking about how great you are to your wife, kids, co-workers and anyone else who will listen.”
“Not only is this kind of pervasive narcissism not necessary, but it will hurt you in the long run,” she adds. “Narcissists also tend to be overconfident and take too many risks. This works great during boom times but causes spectacular failure when things turn south.”
2012, May 24 
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