Keeping work are work and home at home when it comes to social media.
We’ve heard the stories before…
A person posts something on their own personal Facebook page, on their own time, and gets fired from their job because the company disapproved of the post, or because it violated the company policy.
How did the company even see the post in the first place? How can employees ensure that their personal posts stay personal?
It gets difficult in today’s social media world to keep our work lives totally separate from our personal lives. We have co-workers who are friends, and want to be friends on social media sites. Do we become friends with our boss or is it better not to?
Some would say that social media should just be avoided all together. Considering that the average young worker is connected to 16 co-workers on social media and approximately 40%-60% of hiring managers use social media to screen applicants, that is just not an option.
Some professionals use different platforms for different friends. They will add their co-workers to a platform like LinkedIn, and their personal friends to Facebook.
Part of the problem with this strategy is that people feel pressured to accept friend requests from co-workers when they receive them on the platforms that they reserved for personal friends only.
So here are a few solutions:
Content Strategy - completely and totally tailor your content to ensure you earn and keep the respect of your boss and stay out of trouble.
Audience Strategy – Separate your postings into groups, and only post certain things to certain groups to ensure people from work do not see the posts you want kept private.
Open Strategy – Use your social media to post thoughtful and insightful content of whatever comes to mind, but not personal life.
When it comes to social media there is no right answer, the key is to be mindful and aware. Good luck and happy posting.
