You wake up at 6:30am, by 8:03am you are at Starbucks waiting on your triple, venti, non-fat, mocha latte. At 8:07am you are in your car Instagraming your latte with the hash tags #earlymornings #workflow #girlboss. But, you have a work meeting scheduled for 8:30am, and by the time you are done posting, commenting, and checking your likes, you are late for your meeting. Because you are friends with your boss on Instagram, your boss later learns why you were late—you stopped for coffee—and now your boss has the perception that you are irresponsible, which may or may not be true, but that doesn’t matter—perception is reality.

If you choose to be friends with your boss and coworkers on Instagram and Facebook, you need to be extremely careful about what you post and what time of day you post it. If you are not friends with your boss and coworkers on social media—which is advised—your social media accounts should be private and you should change your account settings to require your approval before your friends can post and tag you in photos. The last thing you need is your boss or coworker seeing you half-naked and drunk because your bestie tagged you in a photo she posted from #girlsnightout. As a professional, those types of posts should not be on your page. If they are, go through your pictures and start deleting and untagging yourself, now. Make sure your social media accounts reflect the person you are—professional, responsible, and someone with good judgment. Otherwise, social media could be ruining your career and you don’t even know it.