A few simple rules applied to your social media conduct can save your professional reputation.
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Social media is everywhere. Most people have at least one account and many more have multiple, but no one ever really talks about social media from a professional standpoint because social media is at its very core, personal. Still, the question must and should be asked…how do we define the rules of social media conduct? You’ve witnessed friends and family oversharing — maybe you’re the oversharer.
Before social media came along, would you run out into the street with a megaphone to broadcast your dirt?
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Because social media is based in emotion, it’s easy to get swept up by what we read and see, by what others share with us. Social posts are engineered to elicit emotions and reactions. Delivering good and bad news, posts are often funny, and sometimes make us angry or sad. So what is the key to conducting oneself in both a personal and professional manner that maintains good — allow me to dredge up that old word — etiquette?
Etiquette can be interpreted in a number of ways, but it’s just a fancy word describing a standard of behavior. Read on for some examples of how to handle common situations as they pertain to your personal reputation and especially to your professional one:
Did you know:
- How you conduct yourself may have repercussions you might not have considered? So…stop before you respond! Try waiting an hour before replying to a post if you feel emotional. One hour can give you the clarity you might not have been able to appreciate in the heat of the moment.
- Sometimes the best response is no response? You are not obligated to reply to anyone. If you are unsure how to react, this is your gut speaking up to warn you.
- About the old saying “Critique in private. Praise in public”? Maybe we should rewrite it to “Critique via email or direct message. Praise on posts.”
- Keeping your personal business private is never a bad decision. It eliminates drama. Before social media came along, would you run out into the street with a megaphone to broadcast your dirt?
- Once you put something in writing in social media or on the Internet your content lives forever? Cached pages function as a snapshot kept until the end of time. Oh, and now the Internet owns it.
- Social media is just one, vast electronic grapevine where intentions get distorted: did you mean your comment to be rude because you didn’t include a smiley face? Did you mean to yell because you wrote a statement in all caps? Did you mean to insult other posters on a friend’s page or were you responding to a different person entirely? It can all get very confusing.
- Social media misconduct can alter your reputation in your employer’s eyes? You definitely don’t want to take that chance. Time to put the shot glass down and please resist the urge to pass out in your work clothes with that friend who might think capturing it on their camera phone rates a LMAO!
- If you behave in a manner violating your company’s social media policy even while on someone else’s page it could lead to possible disciplinary actions? As a web content administrator, I’ve seen it happen. Social media team members are under obligation to report employees’ behaviors, which may be damaging to the brand. This might be why I sat alone in the lunchroom.
- Only authorized employees are allowed to post on your company’s behalf? Even well-meaning posters can easily find themselves in violation of social media policies and on the receiving end of discipline.
- Every piece of social media, every post, every picture, EVERYTHING is approved by a member of your employer’s social media team before it goes live?
- Social media is marketing and PR combined, existing for the purposes of informing, engaging and protecting the reputation of your employer?
- The FCC has no problem shutting down a business page, or even excluding a business from Google searches if that business is found to be in violation of FCC Regulations. As a side note, every single person responsible for posting to the business page needs to know FCC regs, meaning third-party vendors, too!
The list of social media activities one can take part in is long, from creeping on an ex’s page to wasting time playing games, to whiling away the hours chatting, retweeting, reposting or searching for connections. We are steadily losing face-to-face time with people and diminishing the already sparse quality moments we have when at home with our family. Not to mention, we are growing more comfortable in situations where we don’t have to talk to people, all of which contributes to anti-social behavior and the belief we exist by ourselves in a safe alternate universe, which cloaks us from others, or gives us just enough exposure to “real life” to provide minimal satisfaction. It is still important to spend time with people. To get lungfuls of fresh air. To experience life with all five senses. It is important to maintain a high standard of personal and professional conduct because social media is an extension of you.
When interacting on social media sites, protect your personal and professional reputation. Trust your gut. Wait one hour before dashing off a reply and reach out to the appropriate contact if you have any questions. If you do have a question, wait to post until your question’s been answered. It is possible to have fun on social media sites while maintaining professional conduct 🙂 (Note the smiley face to indicate positivity).
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Photo: Flickr/Khalid Albaih