16 Behaviors Professionals Should Avoid On…

In the era of personal branding, the distinction between what is and isn’t professional to post on your social media accounts sometimes gets blurry. Building your own brand and accelerating your career success becomes more accessible with platforms such as LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook- If you use them professionally and correctly. Here are the worst 16 behaviors professionals should avoid on social media in 2020.

Key Takeaways

16 Behaviors Professionals Should Avoid On Social Media
Complaining about your work, colleagues, or manager.
Getting too sales-y and Showy.
Sticking to one social media platform.
Posting your own content only.

Last Reviewed: April 2026 | Sources: DrJobPro Hiring Data Q1 2026.

16 Behaviors Professionals Should Avoid On Social Media

Complaining about your work, colleagues, or manager.

Although this can sound like an
evident, the number one unprofessional act conveys scathing reviews about you
is complaining about your new workplace, boss, or colleagues. Don’t forget that
potential (and current) employers on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram,
etc. would raise a red flag at the minimal insult or protest. In every industry, even a mere “dreading going to the office” or
“bored at work” post is a negative way to brand yourself.

Getting too sales-y and Showy.

Although self-branding on social media
is critical nowadays, don’t overdo it.

Nobody will continue to follow a person
who continually talks only about himself as he wants to say, “I’m the best
of all.” prove it, don’t say it.

Don’t show off every day, or you’ll
stop surprising people. There must always be some novelty left over. The person
who displays a little more of it each day keeps up expectations, and no one
ever discovers the limits of his talent. — Baltasar Gracián.

Sticking to one social media platform.

With over 2.7 billion active users/
month, Facebook is today’s biggest social network.

While being involved on Facebook, you
should also make the best use of other prominent social networks that appeal to
users outside Facebook.

Some of them are Pinterest (320 million
active users/ month) and LinkedIn with (675 million active users/ month)
professionals.

The key to deciding which platform you
should be active in is your industry. For example, if you’re a B2B marketer,
you should focus on LinkedIn, where there are 90 million senior-level
influencers.

Posting your own content only.

Only posting stuff from your website
shows the crowd that your thoughts are the only ones that matter. Google SEO
updates have lately targeted pages that only post posts with themselves in
mind.

This is because one ‘s attitude is
viewed as self-serving by one who just reflects their opinions. It’s useful for
your connections to read content from other users, similar to your niche. This
supports your content marketing strategies.

It also helps you by identifying with
well-known influencers and businesses to promote your own brand.

The more value you offer your audience,
the more you become valuable. No matter where the value comes from.

Posting with vague messaging or goals.

Your audience expects, as a
professional, a reason for what you say.

Try to cover these questions before
publishing anything:

What is this post’s objective?
To my target audience, is it relevant?
Will the writing style make me seem incompetent or
unprofessional?

Whether it is insightful, informative,
or has a call-to-action, behind every message, you still have a reason. The aim
is to be in the audience’s minds in the “professional” side.

Posting with grammar and spelling errors.

” thnx so mutch.”

A professional who usually posts with
poor spelling and grammar conveys the message that they don’t have a high
degree, regardless of the content of every social media post.

This means that you’re not a very
professional partner for your target audience. This won’t do your brand any
good. Before posting anything on social media accounts, make sure that it
passes an editing process to detect all grammar and spelling errors.

Additionally, avoid using slang,
acronyms, and shortcuts.

Posting only as inspiration hits.

Sharing only posts affected by your
on-time mood can work only on your personal accounts with your friends. For
your professional brand,

For your business, the more you write,
the more you’ll receive attention.

There’s a study that shows that you
should post 1-2 times/ day on Facebook and Instagram, 5-10 tweets/day on
Twitter, 5-30 pins on Pinterest, and 20 posts/month on LinkedIn.

Forgetting your target audience and sharing too much information.

If your target market is the business
world, leave out sharing marital issues, personal issues, and Awkward bits of
information that are better kept in private conversations. Know where you can
draw the line between your digital and personal life.

Ignoring that goal of enriching the lives of your followers.

Starting self-branding is not just
about building your image and working for your own sake. It’s about developing
an identity that can improve the lives of people.

So make it your objective to reflect
your mission when you appear on social media. Which is Sharing information that
is beneficial, important, and valuable to individuals and Enhancing their
lives.

Ignoring comments on your posts and messages in your inbox.

On social media profiles, engagement is a high priority. So comment back when your connections comment on your posts.

Here are some hints on how to reply to
these comments:

Be professional, but nice.
Take what people say and write a suitable response. Don’t
just comment with “Thanks for your reply!”.
Be supportive; your aim should be leaving your connections
feeling happy.

Moreover, stop reading messages and not
replying. In 2020, technological development makes it easy to find a tool that
tracks if you’ve opened the message and how long you have read it. So, reading
a message with no reply will leave an awful impression on the sender.

Networking actively for a position or interview only.

LinkedIn and Twitter are excellent
platforms for networking with other professionals in your field, but there is a
significant gap between networking “and” disturbing/ annoying.
Sending messages or interview questions regularly via social media to potential
employers will not land you a job; it will also result in being unprofessional.
Use social media to get advice or initiate a conversation, not to crave for a
job.

Learn How to be the best job candidate.

Engaging in controversial issues.

Although expressing your opinion is Good, stay
away from subjects or news that may be too divisive, i.e., religion, culture,
politics. It’s better not to broadcast it all over the place if your viewpoint
may be opposing. Controversial views are a big turn-off for prospective
employers and can lose you the dream interview.

Mentioning illegal activities.

Another lousy behavior, photo or not- anything
that you wouldn’t do or say in front of a police officer shouldn’t go on social
media. Consider it the quickest way to destroy your own career and personal
brand.

Being a Drama Queen.

Through Twitter or Facebook, it might
be easy to go on complaining and tears, but you don’t want the negatives to
overshadow the positives in your online brand. Keep your feelings under
control, take a deep breath, and think before you send out those negative vibes
that, in the future, might reflect negatively on you.

Getting upset when you receive negative comments.

As your brand grows, you’ll get both
positive and negative comments. It would be best to put in mind that negative
comments are there to help you improve and excel. Deal with them open-mindedly
and try to solve the problem instead of getting angry back.

Leaving out or exaggerate posting Photos & Videos.

Although Photos and videos, done right,
are attention-grabbers, a volume of personal images in personal life would be
considered by prospective and existing employers to be a red flag. You don’t want to be considered as the
trivial candidate even though you believe it’s” all in good fun.

There’s nothing wrong with sharing
tasteful, fun shots with friends from an evening out, only if it’s related to
the work setting. Being entertaining and engaging is critical, but don’t forget
to differentiate between business posts and personal posts.

For your personal branding, social media can be an incredibly influential force, but only if you handle your activity correctly. Doing social media for a business is more of a science than it sounds, and when building your online brand and crafting your professional accounts, there are some very strict tips that you need to hold in mind. These 20 behaviors professionals should avoid on social media will help you turn your poor image into a growing self-brand.

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