Did you hear about a school-teacher who, four years ago, featured in the international press because she lost her job over pictures she had posted on FaceBook? She had the privacy settings set to high and only allowed friends to view. However, someone forwarded them to her school superintendent. The pictures were pretty innocuous of her drinking beer at a Guinness brewery in Dublin. The school ruled that if students saw them it would appear that drinking alcohol was being promoted by one of their school-teachers. So she had to resign!
Earlier this year, when it seemed like everyone was joining in on YouTube, doing a version of “The Harlem Shake” dance, a group of Australian miners joined-in the craze which was sweeping social media. At one stage some 4,000 variations of “Harlem Shake” were being uploaded daily. Their employers were not pleased when the miners’ dance videosurfaced. The company determined that the miners’ antics compromised its “core values of safety, integrity and excellence”. The miners lost their jobs!
There are many more examples of how what we do in social media influences what happens in our business and equally, vice-versa, in our social lives. It is easy to get carried away, when we think we are only chatting with friends, because in our enthusiasm we forget others may see and read what we are posting. Social Media is INSTANT and it is important to keep the word INSTANT in capitals whenever you post, tweet or blog. What personal checks you have in place, before you press the send key, determines whether social media is your friend or foe because once you have pressed it there is no turning back!
Many work colleagues share our social media contacts. Examples of co-workers having, either inadvertently or deliberately, caused problems for their social media friends are well known. However private you think postings may be, they are not. It only takes one person to copy and paste your posting, somewhere else, and the “cat is out of the bag”. We need to realise that today our private lives are no longer so private. Many still believe that an individual has a right to control the information they consider private, but this has become an impossible aspiration. The overall view is that we are not losing control; we are simply giving it away. Posting pictures on social networks or just sending an email may make public – private information. We are turning what should be a friend into a foe by not observing some basic rules.
- Never forget anything can leak outPictures of you posted on-line, drunk at a party, can ruin your professional reputation. What you do on-line affects your off-line persona.
- If you have nothing good to say, don’t say it!If you are trying to build a positive image of yourself, imagine what an employer might think if all they hear is that you only ever complain.Having a bad day, frustration at work, headache – then go to the gym or chat directly to a friend but DO NOT post your irritations and grievances on-line.
- Do not promote or post too much Many businesses have grown on the strength of social media as work and home life are intertwined on social networks. However if all you do is promote yourself and your company rather than concentrate on building on-line relationships, others will soon get fed-up with you. The dangers of # “hash tag” twitter have caused many a tumble!
- Stir well clear of posting anything– which you consider a joke because some might find it offensive. Similarly do not post anything which is religious, political, sexual or graphic in content. The social media world is a very big place and it is easy, even innocently, to upset others.
- Never argue on social networksThis is one of the most important aspects to remember. You will never win an argument on social networks because there will always be someone else waiting to enter a counter viewpoint. Stay positive and polite, remember you can always “de-friend” them. As for taking legal action about something which offends is, without doubt, the last resort. It is not true that all publicity is good publicity and legal action could well promote the very thing you want kept private as well as costing a fortune.
These rules may seem simple but if you were to ask the 500 million people on FaceBook or the 100 million on MySpace if they are concerned about their privacy you would find that the greater majority really don’t care. Just like in real life, most believe that on social media, “accidents and bad things” only happen to other people. Social media – friend or foe – it’s your choice !