Article: To Tweet or Not to Tweet: A dilemma

Life @ Work

To Tweet or Not to Tweet: A dilemma

Rants on your social media page will alienate your professional friends
To Tweet or Not to Tweet: A dilemma
 

The choices one makes while being logged on to one's social networking profile reflect on the professional image one creates

 

Rants on your social media page will alienate your professional friends

Leveraging employees’ social media presence is something that most of the companies seem to be working on. And why not? It comes in handy as a cost-effective way to engage with the audience and consumers and increases the company’s reach manifold. But is that all? The recent McAlpine and BBC episode which has brought 10,000 people on the verge of being sued by McAlpine for wrongly naming him a paedophile on Twitter is reason enough to spare a thought for the consequences of a casual tweet. This might be an extreme case, but the responsibility associated with every single tweet or status update is something one cannot dissociate oneself from in the current scenario. The consequences may not be as severe as being sued for poking fun at someone, but image and relationships might certainly be at risk if you have your professional connections on your friends list.
All professional jargon and how-to-promote-your-company-on-social-networking-sites tips aside, one has to accept that social media updates are fundamentally personal. Selection and usage of apps, likes or re-tweets, comment and tags, all of these are usually driven by personal choices and interests. Unless one has created an account solely for professional purposes, it is hard to restrain oneself from posting about an adventure trip, a good meal, a cocktail party or in the worst case, about a drunken night out. Similarly, the choices one makes while being logged on to one’s social networking profile reflect on the professional image one creates.
Here is what you need to be guarded about if you have professional contacts on your social networking profile:

1. Use of Geolocation apps:
Based on the settings, Geolocation apps automatically update the user’s location on his profile. Choosing the auto-update option for these apps means disclosing your location to everyone all the time. Even if these are not on the auto-update mode, every time you check in you disclose your location to everybody on your friends list. It is wise not to use these apps when visiting client offices or trying to crack some big marketing or sales related deal that you would like to keep confidential. It is best not to keep such apps on all the time as this would give you control over what locations to share and what to avoid. Tagging people requires the same level of caution.

2. Mixing work with pleasure:
Engaging in leisure activities online or playing games or accessing job sites at the time of work while logged on to your account is something that everybody could see in the form of automatic updates. They may not be of a direct consequence but they do spill the beans about your schedule and approach towards work.

3. Mind your words:
Comments and updates are undoubtedly the most sensitive part of online presence. Every employee represents the company in a way. Whatever is published on your page should never contradict the image your company is trying to create. Keep your organization’s interest in mind while interacting with people. Keep an eye on what people post on your profile or the pics you are tagged in. One important thing, do not poke fun at your organization or ridicule its policies on social networking sites ever. Your clients won’t look kindly on updates about a drunken brawl you had with your boss or the nasty things you have to share about a colleague.
 

Read full story

Topics: Life @ Work

Did you find this story helpful?

Author

QUICK POLL

How do you envision AI transforming your work?