Profile Craft
Part of Professional social profile reviews
Removing claims that cannot be substantiated
Find unsupported profile claims, check their implied scope and decide whether to verify, narrow or remove them.
Remove or narrow a profile claim if you cannot establish what it means, who did the work, or what supports its full scope. State the contribution you can verify, with its necessary limit, or leave the claim out. Swapping an unsupported number for a broad adjective does not fix the problem.
Identify the claim in context
Read explicit and implied claims: “Led the national rollout” suggests responsibility for its direction and reach, while “Award-winning adviser” suggests an identifiable award connected to the person named. Note the exact wording, what a visitor might infer, the available basis and who can confirm it. Include a headline, caption or linked sample when it carries the same message.
Verify, narrow or remove
What can be established / Editorial action
- The claim’s full role, period and scope
- Keep it with any necessary condition.
- A narrower contribution or group
- Rewrite to match that contribution or group.
- Work performed, but no measured result
- Describe the work without an outcome claim.
- No reliable basis or permission to share it
- Remove or hold the claim.
Suppose a profile attributes a project-wide improvement to one team member. Check how the result was measured, what period it covers, the person’s contribution and whether it can be shared. If only the person’s design work can be confirmed, describe that work without assigning them the whole result. This is a hypothetical editing decision, not a reported outcome.
Place the limit where it matters
“I supported the rollout for the Victorian team” describes a different role and scope from “I led the national rollout”. A distant qualification does not make the broader headline accurate. Check that headline, About, Experience and Featured items tell a consistent story after the change.
The ACCC says it can require Australian businesses promoting products or services to back up claims made on social media. It may investigate or take compliance or enforcement action if social media advertising makes false or misleading claims; this concerns business promotion, not a blanket legal conclusion about personal career descriptions.
Keep a brief record of why a material claim was removed or narrowed so an older biography does not restore it. If a linked page still carries the disputed wording, identify its owner before relying on it again.
ACCC guidance on substantiating claims in Australian promotions
- Regulator
- Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)
- Scope of enforcement
- Business promotions on social media must be truthful and substantiated
- Action possible
- Investigation, compliance notices, or enforcement action
- Applies to
- Products, services, and marketing claims — not personal career descriptions
