In my capacity as editor of a magazine, I am called upon to use various social media sites on a daily basis. And while I am quite aware that many of you reading this are decidedly not a member of the social media revolution, chances are someone at your company is. And the chances are just as good that their social media habits may be reflecting poorly on your company — whether you know it or not.
Don’t take this the wrong way — I am not a proponent of creating a social media Gestapo at your company to monitor every employee. What I am saying is everyone who uses social media needs to understand what is appropriate and on which site things should be posted.
Facebook is personal. Go ahead and post pictures of your kids, your political views and memes, connect with old classmates, lovers, find a date...pretty much anything goes that isn’t too vulgar (depending on your point of view on the word vulgar). Employees are very loosely associated with your company here, if at all.
On Twitter — from the security services firm standpoint — it is fine to post news, commentary on that news, promotions for the company, etc. Even if the Twitter user writes “these are my views and not that of my company,” that user is still representing themselves as a member of that company, and all tweets and comments will thus be associated with that company. Therefore, most active Twitter users have a work and a personal account (a very good idea), thus insulating or separating any personal comments or potential questionable activity from the reputation of the company they represent.
So far, so good — the rules are pretty cut-and-dry. But then, there’s LinkedIn. The idea for LinkedIn is terrific — a purely professional social media network where users absolutely represent their company and themselves to promote, post news and information, find jobs and network with industry peers. And for a while it actually seemed to work that way — but things have started to change.
I open LinkedIn maybe five times a day. Lately, every time I open it I am treated to a hugely inappropriate post right at the top of my “news feed.” Every time. Without fail. And they are there because someone in our industry “liked” it, shared it or commented on it.
Here’s an example: Yesterday I opened LinkedIn and immediately saw a photo of a woman showing a LOT of cleavage. She is an “Assistant Professor” at some college somewhere that I never heard of. This was not a professional photo at all — it was blatantly sexual and inappropriate for the professional workplace environment that LinkedIn is supposed to be. To quote the unnamed (to protect the guilty) security professional in the comments section: “Christ, I want to learn whatever she is teaching.”
Is there any way in the world I am not going to associate his company with that inappropriate at best, misogynistic at worst quote?
Here’s another one: Scroll down half a page from the cleavage and there’s a huge photo of a bombastic Donald Trump. It’s a meme, and it is clearly an anti-Trump message. The security professional who posted this has now associated your company with anti-Trump sentiment. Let’s face it, there are plenty of people out there who love Trump, and someone at your company just potentially alienated any of them who scroll past this message.
Scroll through your LinkedIn feed any day and you will see lots of posts like this — along with stupid math problems, silly quotes and memes, and tons of other Facebook-appropriate/LinkedIn-inappropriate postings.
As a business owner or manager, it is a good idea to publish a social media policy at your company. Outline what is OK and what isn’t when your employees are associating the company name with their postings. There is bound to be an executive — either in HR or in another department — that already has enough social media savvy to help you craft them.
Don’t misunderstand, I love freedom. What people do with their personal social media accounts is their business — unless it is reflecting on YOUR business.
