Companies need to avoid heavy-handed approaches. Employees cannot be coerced into offering up their networks, nor can there be any infringement on their rights to free speech under the National Labor Relations Act.
Even as professionals learn the basics of social media, they will continue to educate themselves in their use. When Jon Thomas, director of strategy for advertising agency TracyLocke, is asked why a pristine social media presence is so important for professionals, he says, “As publishing becomes increasingly ubiquitous, where anyone can share their thoughts on their own blog, on Medium.com, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, or even in 140 characters on Twitter, the idea of a résumé encapsulating the identity of a professional is rapidly becoming outdated.” He added, “Sure, I can dig through your résumé and listen to your answers in an interview, but if I can understand how you think and approach your profession from what you publish online, I can get a much clearer picture of your approach to our business, and more importantly, what your impact might be on our business.” Esta Singer, digital media specialist and founder of the social media consulting firm, s.h.e. CONSULTING, says a “social media presence means you don’t need to work at being found online. You’ve built a positive reputation by building strong relationships, posting timely and relevant information, engaging followers, and demonstrating integrity. Having an online presence means you are able to demonstrate and share value.”
There is still a percentage of the working population that, for reasons of privacy, safety, personal preference, or the risks described, chooses not to use social media. But if a professional is not searchable, especially on LinkedIn, it immediately begs the question “Why not?” or “What is he trying to hide?” Today, social media is where the business conversation takes place, with or without us. We need to be part of the conversation.
The Cyber Citizen
In a moment of self-reflection, Edward wonders how he got so mean and judgmental. The 55-year-old senior executive at Class A Spaces, a leading commercial real estate firm, has mentored countless young folks over the years. He was always happy to do so and has taken great pride in their accomplishments. Edward credits his own success to his mentors and the amazing network he built over 25 years in the business.
Things are so different now from when he started. Back then, networking was done face-to-face over business meals and after-hours drinks and at conferences and sporting events. Edward has always loved those in-person connections and knows the relationships he developed from them are largely responsible for his success. Today, networking is almost all electronic. Edward understands the time-saving appeal of mass-networking, but is not as sold on the value or quality of some of the relationships that come from it.
Take LinkedIn. On any given day, Edward receives multiple invitations to connect, the majority of which come from people he doesn’t know. Most of the invitations are impersonal and seem hastily sent. All are blatantly self-promotional, about what he can do for them. To be honest, he isn’t inclined to do anything for them. It’s difficult to endorse people who have unprofessional profiles or share strong political or social views. His credibility is at stake. It’s hard for him to reject these invitations even though that is his inclination. Edward again wonders just how and when he became so mean and judgmental.
The ever-changing and ever-growing number of social media platforms makes it unfeasible to learn the individual best practices for every one of them. The good news is you do not need to. Adhering to basic guidelines for use with all media is almost all that is required to keep your brand intact. It is important, however, to learn the differences between the major platforms, as each has its distinct purpose and personality. When you want to clearly understand what should be shared on a specific site, think first of the three Ps: whether the information is suitable for public, private, or professional audiences.
Even when using platforms as intended, you need to discern the fine line between being appropriately social and inappropriately annoying. We all have the “friend” who cannot go one day without posting yet another cloying platitude, detailed description of her awesome life, or cat video. Observe what happens on the various platforms. Social media offer swift, often stinging feedback. Sometimes just not doing as others do is all that is required.
We have identified respect as the basis for all personal and professional success. There is no place where respect, or the lack of it, is more starkly displayed than on social media. The reach, speed, and permanency of behavior on social media can literally make or break a career. Online respect is not only a good thing, it is also imperative for workplace survival.
On social media, respect starts with adopting the attributes of a good cyber citizen. In his book, Unmarketing, Scott Stratton describes the concept of “social currency.” He says if one wants value from social media, one has to first build currency.6 Once someone has proven to be helpful, his network will be more willing to help in return. Like a bank, you can’t make a withdrawal until you have made a deposit!
Respect your privacy and others’ privacy. A teacher was fired simply because someone else posted a photo of her having a beer at a bar while on vacation. Be considerate about what you share on your own and on your friends’ pages and feeds. If a message is at all personal, send it to the person directly.
Very important: Never post anything that could jeopardize the safety or personal property of yourself or others. This means you do not share anyone’s home address, current location, or travel plans. It is estimated that 80 percent of burglars glean information from social media to plan their activities. Criminals employ Google Street View to stalk homes, view Facebook to monitor check-ins at hotels and airport lounges, and use location data garnered from posted pictures to know when someone is not at home. Users themselves often openly advertise and chronicle their comings and goings via posts and photos, giving thieves extremely useful information.
You can avoid being a victim of “cyber casing” by not sharing upcoming travel plans online, not checking in from remote locations, and not posting photos until you are home. Keep your phone from giving away your location by disabling geotags and GPS tracking and by not publishing photos directly from your phone.
Online best practices require that you consider how your friends’ posts reflect on you. If their posts often include inappropriate language, photos, or humor, it may be time to rethink these connections. Some worry that to “unfriend” someone on Facebook, especially if he is a family member or longtime friend, will do irreparable harm to that relationship. Luckily, privacy settings allow for stealth ways to limit what people see without having to blatantly unfriend them. These include “hiding” people from your feed, using privacy features to customize what others see, and turning off chat features with particular friends or blocking them. You can, of course, actually unfriend people, too. They won’t be notified, but will probably figure it out.
All major social media platforms have privacy settings and sharing features. These differ from site to site and seem to constantly change, making it hard to keep up. Staying current with and using sites’ privacy settings are the best ways to protect your brand and relationships.
First impressions matter online, as they always do in life in general. Regardless of the platform, always introduce yourself; don’t assume others will know who you are. When inviting someone to join your network, include a brief, warm, personalized note, not the generic message provided by the platform. In completing your professional profile pages, use an actual photo of yourself at the age you are now. Your baby photo, however cute, can be confusing and possibly seen as inauthentic or unprofessional. On all sites, use good grammar and check your spelling.
Just as in real life, you choose your friends in cyberspace and they choose you. Sometimes you receive connection requests from people you do not know or from people you do know but do not wish to connect with. You do not need to accept every request nor will all of your requests be accepted. Many people have strict guidelines for
themselves about whom they will accept as connections. Some will just connect with immediate family, others with extended family and close actual friends, and others with anyone who invites them! Don’t take it personally if your request is not accepted. Some think it is rude to ignore friend or connection requests; others think it more humane to let them sit in pending mode rather than reject them outright. Who knows? In the future, you may want to connect with this person. It may be better not to burn a bridge.
The intervals at which you post may also reflect upon your social media savvy. SumAll, a data analytics company, offers these posting guidelines: Facebook, two times a day (more than that, and likes and comments will drop off); LinkedIn, one time a weekday; Google+, three times a day; Twitter, three times a day; Instagram, up to two times a day; Pinterest, up to five times a day; and a blog, up to two times a week.7 But social media guru Esta Singer says there is no magic number and that the “frequency depends upon your audience and relevance of the information you are posting.” Your posting intervals will likely vary depending on what’s happening at any given moment in your life or in your connections’ lives. The bottom line: Good judgment is key, as you may be judged by your posting frequency.
The Social Network
At 65 years old, Stephen is a Facebook novice. For years, his out-of-state daughters had been asking him to set up an account so they could share photos and videos of his grandchildren and generally stay up on one another’s lives. Stephen used to think Facebook was for kids, but now most of his friends have accounts. So he finally decided he would take the plunge.
But it’s been hard for him to get the hang of it. Wall posts, status updates, timelines, messages, lists, privacy settings—it’s all overwhelming. And boy, is he making mistakes. Yesterday, he sent a long message to an old friend he recently reconnected with, catching him up on 20 years of his life: relationships, work, health—it was all there. Stephen soon got a private message back from his friend. “Did you really intend to post on my timeline?” his friend asked. “I don’t know . . . I think so . . . why?” Stephen wrote back.
His friend explained that timeline messages are visible to all of his friends and that in the future, he might want to share these messages privately. Lesson learned—the hard way, thinks Stephen.
A scenario like this is unthinkable to digital natives, but to those just getting their feet wet in social media waters, it happens all the time. Digital natives have an edge over their older colleagues with regard to social media etiquette, mostly because they wrote the rules! As this technology evolved, they learned which behaviors were acceptable and welcomed on the various platforms and which were not. Now that guidelines have been widely agreed on and adopted, later social media entrants can quickly get up to speed with a little research and a lot of good judgment.
As a card-carrying digital immigrant, I reached out to my network, which includes some folks who make their living in social media. These experts vetted my advice and shared their own best practices for the most popular social media sites. Meant to be a primer, the following may be brand new information for digital immigrants or a review for digital natives. For those who live and breathe social media, it will serve as a simple reminder of the importance of practicing good habits.
Social Sites
Fifty-eight year-old Christine, CEO of a large apparel company, has so far resisted the pressure. Christine has heard from her executive team how important it is for her to have a social media presence and about the benefits to the company of a CEO who is seen as accessible, transparent, and responsive. But the few spare moments she has after her typical 80-hour workweek she wants to spend with her family, not tweeting or posting updates on LinkedIn. Besides, it just seems complicated and too risky. Christine has seen other executives get into big trouble and have to apologize for their online mistakes. And although she would never tell this to her team, in her opinion all of this “sharing” is a bit beneath the dignity of a CEO.
Still, she pays her executive team to give her this kind of advice, whether she likes it or not. She asks her assistant to arrange some time with the PR Department to get her set up. She is going to need their help.
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking website that enables users to join networks of friends, family, and people with similar interests. A Facebook profile is one’s personal account on Facebook. Here, people can “friend” others, post photos and videos, “like” and share others’ posts, send messages, and provide updates. Depending upon privacy settings, a user’s friends may see a user’s posts on his “wall” and have the ability to comment on his posts. Only one Facebook profile can be associated with a name. While not a business-oriented site, Facebook has implemented a feature that allows users to add professional skills to their profiles, increasingly leveraging its users’ vast social connections to compete in the job search market.
In his article for Yahoo Tech, “11 Brutal Reminders That You Can and Will Get Fired for What You Post on Facebook,” Dan Bean shares these stories:
An employee posts, “I hate my boss,” and gets the comment, “You do realize we’re friends on fb, right?”
A young intern says he cannot come to work due to a family emergency. He shows up the same day on Facebook in a photo at a Halloween party, dressed as a wand-wielding fairy.
An employee posts “ . . . so happy to be listening to T4F, while pretending to work,” and gets the comment, “We are the people who pay you while you pretend to work. Please come and see me.”
A young man posts a photo of himself doing drugs and gets the comment, “ . . . give me a good reason not to fire you first thing Monday morning.”8
In contrast to a profile, a Facebook page is a business account through which brands ask customers and prospects to like their pages to follow their brands. Here, they can also advertise with Facebook ads. To have a Facebook page, one must first have a Facebook profile. However, one can then have as many pages as he desires. It’s important to keep personal and business connections and profiles separate. One reason is that use of a personal account to promote a business is against Facebook’s terms of service, which may result in Facebook deleting the account. Equally important is that content shared on personal and business accounts is, or at least should be, meant for distinctly different audiences.
A Facebook page is a great way for a business to grow a following, establish credibility, and measure engagement results. It’s important to take time to learn best practices for this medium and to remember that it’s a two-way conversation. All comments, both positive and negative, require a response.
When using your personal Facebook account, it is recommended that you “friend” only people you actually know and like. But for many users, younger people especially, it is still a “more friends the merrier” scenario. On average, those in the 18–24 age range have 649 Facebook friends.9 Interestingly, U.S. News and World Report cites an Oxford University study that says of all our Facebook friends, only four are actual friends—the same number we have in real life.10 When deciding upon how many Facebook friends you want to have, it is wise to remember that the greater the number of Facebook friends, the greater the risk of information falling into the wrong hands.
ANNOYING HABITS
Spamming. Soliciting, promoting, or selling of any kind is considered spam. On Facebook, most people are fine with requests for donations to charities or personal causes, but draw the line at crowdfunding requests for leisure travel, a sabbatical in Provence, or a new boat!
“Vague booking.” Posting intentionally ambiguous updates can come across as narcissistic or passive aggressive. Posts like “NEVER again . . .” or “This can’t go on . . .” cause concern and/or irritation among friends.
Providing TMI. Too much information includes photos of recent surgery scars, 50 vacation photos, or a baby’s naked behind. If you must share, be extremely selective about who sees these posts.
Jeopardizing others’ privacy. As proud as
parents are of their children, by posting their photos and activities, they are making privacy and safety decisions that could have lifetime implications for those too young to consent. The advice is to think carefully about what and how often you post about others, especially children. In France, parents can now be sued by their adult children and possibly jailed for having posted their photos on social media without their permission.
“Humble bragging.” The practice of packaging good news as though it’s actually an inconvenience is both obvious and insufferable. “Our Billy just got accepted at Harvard and Yale. Poor thing, now he has to decide between his dad’s alma mater and his mom’s!” Actual bragging gets old, too. Facebook is for sharing one’s happy news among real friends and family members, as long as such posts do not dominate and self-congratulation is kept at bay. Promoting friends’ good news is great, provided it’s someone you actually have a relationship with in real life. Otherwise, it can seem creepy. But if the good news is about you or an immediate family member, allowing friends to share it whenever possible has a much nicer ring!
There are some everyday Facebook practices that can help us avoid potentially sticky situations. They include making sure we send private messages for two-way communication, refraining from posting status changes unless all affected parties have been notified (a young man learned his parents were divorcing when he saw that his mother had changed her status to single), and being careful about checking in from Starbucks when we are supposed to be home sick! But perhaps the easiest way to make sure our Facebook friends actually stay our friends is to subject our posts to these three filters: Is it interesting? Is it helpful? Is it entertaining? If our posts meet these criteria, we’ll stay a welcome Facebook connection.
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