One of my Twitter friends shared a link to a very interesting article on appropriate corporate blogging which got me thinking about a similar topic. Where is the line between personal and professional in the social media world?
When I am on my personal blog or my personal twitter account, am I still representing my company?
If I make a rant about my job, company or boss on one of my social media outlets where I normally exchange thoughts with my friends, am I smearing and possibly hurting the reputation of the company?
What do you think?
I will paint a hypothetical so we can discuss:
My name is Jane Doe. I work for a company XYZ. I am into social media and so I can be found on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and of course, Twitter. I use these outlets to stay in touch with my friends and fans and like everyone, you can find out a lot about me if you were to come across me on any of these sites. Google my name and you will see what I do, where I work, etc.
I like to Tweet during the day to stay in touch with my people and on occasion I have been known to complain about my day. Sometimes work just sucks and I tell my friends that. My complaints are pretty general, but sometimes I really hate my job. I’m not making any blatant statements like, “XYZ is the worst place to work in the world”, but I have been known to complain.
OK, so I ask you dear reader – Is Jane Doe doing anything wrong? Is this an appropriate way to use social media? Does it matter that just about anyone can come across the Twitter complaint post, see who the person is and therefore find out where they work and make judgments about the company? Should we be able to openly express ourselves on our personal SM tools or are we always representing our company in this new age of open communication? Where is the line? Is there such thing as “personal” when you can almost always tie someone back to their company?
I’d love to hear your thoughts…
What an interesting debate to have. Posts on twitter, an individual’s set of bookmarks on a social bookmarking site, personal blogs; these are only credible if they are true reflections of a person. These cannot be faked. Companies that do try and create false profiles and empty buzz are easy to spot, and avoid. To be part of these online communities it is better to be who you are and not a construct.
However, when you are representing your company or organization you do need to follow that organizations guidelines. You should follow the corporate culture, values and norms. This way you are being true to who the organization is. Again, it is not about faking an organizational image, it is depicting a true representation of who the organization is. This involves truly embracing social media, being transparent and following the ‘social rules’ of the media you are using. If you are not prepared to do that, then do not use social media for your business as it will not ring true and can cause more PR damage than good.
I do believe in freedom of speech, however I also believe that freedom of speech does not come without responsibility or consequences. Our duty to act according to that responsibility and consequences requires some level of censorship, be it self censorship (knowing your boss can quite easily gain access to your open dialogue) or imposed censorship (language and obscene footage filters on a children’s website).
I have been intrigued by the debate encouraged by tcg on the subject of Twittering. This is a wonderful word, cleverly conceived and it will undoubtedly be successful, provided it is used wisely, especially by the business world.
The debate surrounding Twittering as a business tool is thought provoking.
I believe that the initial sub-conscious perception by a reader of you, your company or brand, is directly related to the content, style and location of your message. These factors are synonymous.
For me, from a business point of view, the very brand name Twittering conjures up an immediate feeling of triviality, gossip or a bit of frivolity.
Twittering doesn’t say ‘business environment’ to me, It says ‘not really serious social chit-chat’.
From a commercial brand perspective, I understand that if two or more people are discussing a brand on Twitter and that if the comments posted are personal, then this may well get your message out there, but will the results be positive or negative?
With regards to an employee giving their personal opinion of a brand that is owned by their employer on the Twitter site, I believe that is only natural that other readers will believe those comments, good or bad.
I venture to suggest that if they were bad, then they would be believed even more, thus perhaps causing irreparable damage to that brand’s image.
The concept that one should not be working for a brand that one honestly does not believe in, sits very strongly in a consumer’s mind set. IE ‘If it isn’t good enough for the employee of the brand, then how can it be good enough for me?’
That scenario is one thing, but as the owner or producer of a brand, to be seen to be posting that brand on Twitter as a serious statement, well, that is another.
Speaking personally, I would enjoy social dialogue on Twitter, but I don’t think, as things stand at the moment, that I would treat a brand statement or advertisement seriously, if I read it on that web site.