Watch what you say online
Regular readers will know I’ve been doing posts about various social networks. There’s a lot of good things about them but there are some things you need to be careful about too.
I was reading SpeakerNet News recently and saw a quote about the use of Facebook and Twitter and how you conduct yourself there. Now, may I say, that I think it is always important to conduct yourself professionally, or in the manner you would always want to be perceived. No use in behaving one way in one place and different in another and not think anyone will notice. They will.
Anyway, let me share with you what Rita Makana Risser has to say:
Peter Shankman reports on a speaker who twittered on his way to speak to FedEx in Memphis about how he would die if he had to live there. He showed up to a hostile audience! Be aware that what might seem cute or funny to your pals can be an insult to your audience or meeting planners. It might be a good idea to limit posts on politics to groups that share your political views. A political posting on Facebook by one of my friends for all her friends to see caused quite a bit of discussion and not the good kind. Whether or not you want to use Facebook for business purposes, meeting planners and corporate types are looking at us wherever we show up, and making decisions based on what we post. You can have a business page on Facebook as well as a personal page, and that’s what I have done. Your personal page is for real friends and family; the business one is for everyone else.
I think what Rita says makes a lot of sense, don’t you?
It is. Strangers don’t know you as well as your close ones, and a simple, unintentional joke might turn out ugly and there goes the reputation created for years in the business.
Conversation via words (typing), even through MSN, at times could be misleading, and cause misunderstanding. Choose the words carefully as well, that’s my experience.
It’s not just Twitter and social sites where you have to be careful. Once put out into Cyberspace anything you have sent there lives there in infamy forever! This has been true from the beginning of the web.
If you think it’s private, think again, and always consider who might be watching, reading or listening.
Your brand is the gateway to your bank balance – mess up your image/brand and be prepared to pay for it.
“Watch what you say online”—you never know how it is being perceived. What’s even worse is when people try to justify their actions with more hate mongering and then act as if they did nothing wrong. If my feelings are hurt by something you’ve said, you should address that in a POSITIVE WAY instead of turning it around and making tme feel as if you had every right to say what you did—and who gives a damn about how I may feel about it.
I’m venting because of something that happened involving this subject matter.