Have you ever stopped to consider how much information you might be giving away to your competition through your personal or professional profiles? It’s probably not something many of us think about but it is something you should seriously consider. Just like the information your company shares can potentially be used by the competition to gain competitive insight, the information you’re sharing on your social profiles can as well.

Giving Too Much Away

What you may be revealing might surprise you. If your social profiles are not completely private, then you are sharing plenty of information that might be beneficial to the competition. Twitter and Facebook allow others to see who you are connected to – perfect if someone is trying to get an idea of who you are networking with. If you’ve created public lists on Twitter, everyone can see who’s on those lists and how you’ve categorized them – Marketing Team, Sales Department, Influencers, etc. That means if you have a list of everyone in the office, you’ve just given your competition the same information.

While promoting your professional accomplishments, you might be clueing in the competition. Take LinkedIn for example, the world’s largest professional network on the Internet where users can add achievements and experiences in a resume style format. Earlier this year Sharon Machlis, online managing editor at Computerworld, was able to do a simple search on the site and found out that more than 300,000 iPads were available in sales channels on launch day, Apple shipped 2 million iPads in 60 days, and that between 2003 and 2008 Apple had 5 full-time employees moderating discussions and monitoring activity in its online communities – and she did it in about 20 minutes. Fortunately, that information was shared after the fact by former Apple employees, but if you’re updating your profile with a project you’re currently working on you’ll want to ensure you’re not giving too much away. Imagine that type of information in the hands of your competitors.

What Story Does Your Facebook Profile Tell

Do you know everyone you’ve connected with or did you let a few people slip in under the radar without being fully aware of who they are? If so, you might want to rectify that by creating friend lists and limiting who sees what. The groups you join and events you RSVP to tell a story.

Your company has been planning a big reveal, one that’s going to blow the competition’s mind. You’re the company’s most well known developer on the social media scene and you’ve recently joined several Facebook groups relating to developing mobile apps. You’ve also started RSVPing to Facebook events around the same topic, all at the same time your department has been working on a top secret mobile app for your company. Don’t forget all those check-ins with Facebook’s new geotagging feature, Places. Guess what? You might be tipping off the competition to your company’s next big move.

Geotag This and Bookmark That

While we’re mentioning geotagging, think about all those Gowalla and Foursquare check-ins as well. Though those services may be the first that come to mind, remember that many applications and platforms also have geolocation options built in. Twitter now allows you to set a location for each tweet and Flickr lets you tag your photos with locations.

You and the rest of the C-Suite execs flew out to Colorado. The photos you may be innocently sharing on your lunch break, could reveal you’re located a stone’s throw away from that organization your company’s been denying rumors about partnering with – coincidence? Maybe, but the rumors are really flying now. Oops!

Do you use social bookmarking sites like Delicious? If you haven’t privately bookmarked your items you might be sharing what you’re researching, reading and reviewing. You wouldn’t want to tip off your number one rival to the fact that you’re planning to scoop them on their next story, would you?

New Social Sites

New social networking sites are being introduced to us at breakneck speeds and each has a new draw to get us registered and interacting. One example of a newer site is Hashable. Hashable is a fun site that lets you track relationships, meetings, and calls publicly or privately using hashtags. Now think of these interactions from a competitive intel point of view, who you’re meeting with could be very telling over time.

Naturally, you have privacy setting options on all your social profiles. You’ll want to be very aware of what boxes you’re checking when you’re setting these up and what applications you’re interacting with. Take the time to check the privacy settings for all your social profiles and customize them to your comfort level. Doing so will help to ensure you won’t be the person who gives away a little too much inside information.

Do your social profiles reveal too much about what’s going on at your company? Will you be taking another look at your privacy settings? What would you add to this post? We value your comments and would love to hear your thoughts on this  topic. Kick off the discussion below.

Tags: Apple, Delicious, Facebook, Flickr, Foursquare, Gowalla, Hashable, intermediate, IPad, Linkedin, online privacy, online privacy in social media, protecting online privacy, Social Media, twitter