Connect With Your Professor Online, But Be Smart About It

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Social media, like Twitter and Facebook, can be useful for your coursework; many professors have already incorporated these kinds of sites into their classes, so we know that there are academic advantages to social networking sites.

However, if you find yourself in a situation that requires you to friend or follow your professor, you should scrub your profile or filter your online activity. This may seem like common sense, but you’d be surprised at how many students do not censor their online profiles. Their online presences can lead to school officials taking disciplinary action if their profiles contain content that breaks school policy.

Of course, these situations are rare. Instead, you should filter or carefully manage your online presence in order to maintain credibility with your professor. For example, think of what could happen if you one day realize that you need an extension on a really big project. If your professor follows you on Twitter or is your friend on Facebook, he could very easily check your status updates and your photos to see what you were up to the past few nights. If your online profile has evidence that, say, you went out and partied, then how do you think your professor might handle your request for an extension?

The good news is this: if you are careful about what you put online, then you can use your social network profiles to, well, network with your professors, especially those professors who gave you good grades and seemed to appreciate your hard work. Social networking with a professor, if done smartly, can help you later down the road when you’re in search of personal references for your job applications or graduate school applications.

Finally, social networking with your professor can help you stay connected with the progress of the class on those days that you have to miss school. There’s nothing more frustrating than missing a few days of school because of an illness and then having to catch up. If you connect with your professor through Facebook or Twitter, you have given yourself another way of communicating with him should you suddenly fall behind. Social networking with your professor, if done well, can give you more opportunities to succeed in school. You simply have to watch what you do and say online.

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