When Social Media Intersects with Your Personal Life

With great power comes great responsibility. That's not just a great line from "Spiderman". It's a law that applies to social media.

PR News published this report today regarding organizational social media policies and the the intersection of social media with the personal lives of individuals.

In the article, authors Ken Wisnefski and Jessica Cortez offer the following tips for personal media use:

To protect your organization as much as you can, Cortes has these suggestions:

• Discourage employees from friending clients, and discourage managers from friending subordinates.

• Spell out that permission is needed to post company content and views on personal sites (unless such information is already publicly available) and for employees to post anything on the company’s site or blogs, or anywhere else “on behalf of” the company.

• If an employee does disparage your organization online, don’t ignore it. “Go to the employee and talk about the post,” says Cortes. “Don’t let the situation escalate.” PRN

This study provides some great insights, but I'm not sure I agree with the tip discouraging employees from friending clients or co-workers. 

I'm a proponent of the theory that individuals cannot successfully compartmentalize their social media lives. And therefore, any professional who engages in social media should appropriately understand the power that lies at their fingertips.

Social media is an extension of an individual's personal brand. What you tweet or share is an extension of who you are. So when you push that button, you better have thought through the implications and be prepared to live with the consequences.

My personal opinion about social media is shaped by those words Momma so often declared: "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything."

So as I reflect on the new insights and information in this article, I'm left with these observations:

• Every organization needs a social media policy for it's employees. For those organizations that don't provide guidelines, don't be shocked when something bad happens.
• Every individual who participates in social media needs to understand what you share in the social sphere can and will be used against you (almost like social media Miranda rights). 

Use discretion and good judgment when posting at all times.

By following this simple rule, a lot of trouble can be avoided.

The problem is that some people just can't help themselves and, unfortunately, have to learn the hard way.