Graeme Russell runs Adage Business; a marketing and communications agency that assists with the planning and implementation of communication strategies. Visit www.adagebusiness.co.nz
People in business are still concerned about their employees’ use of social media. But this concern is not about their use of it as a business tool, but what they are sharing on personal social media sites.
For some, the main concern is what is said about the business, followed by who the business is seen to be connected to; then there’s the concern about their staff, particularly the ‘tagging’ of staff in photo’s that could be seen as inappropriate to the business and its customers.
Maybe we need to accept that a business has no real control, or even any right, to try and control the activities of their staff outside of the business environment. But it is a concern and how this can be dealt with will be an issue that will continue to raise its head. It is an issue that probably can’t be solved in a ‘one size fits all’ approach.
Some of the concern is that any online activity could hamper their (the company’s) reputation; a valid concern for some, but perhaps an over cautious worry for others – but a concern nonetheless.
There have been reports of one business having spent considerable time and money on lawyers to see what action they could take to have images removed from the internet that breached not only the policies of the business, but potentially also breached the privacy of the people in them. This activity had the potential to cause substantial harm to the business, and the time and resources spent having the images removed took them away from the core business activities.
A simple solution could have been to have had a sound social media / social networking policy that may well have prevented this situation occurring in the first place, but they didn’t; they hadn’t seen any need to be mindful of what, where and how they were being portrayed by others.
There’s likely to be others still grappling with the challenge of how they are seen, how they can ‘educate’ their staff on being mindful of their personal activity without impinging on the individuals rights. What we should all be aware of – is that when we take to using social media we have to be mindful of what we’re saying, who we’re saying it to, and how far what we say and do can travel.
For example; when we post something on Facebook or Twitter it’s not just our immediate connections that may see it, but they have the opportunity to share it with their connections too, and those connections may in turn share it further.
What is said to one, 100, or 1,000 connections can easily and quickly be seen and shared with many thousands of others, who in all probability wouldn’t have the foresight to think about the implications of what is being shared.
Don’t hamper yours or your employee’s online activity, don’t even try – you likely won’t succeed, but do try and gain their understanding of the implications of the ‘wrong’ content being seen.
You want your employees to buy-in to your activity and, remember they are ambassadors for your business, so do let them talk, chat and share. If they know the potential implications you will both feel more comfortable and will yourself be more inclined to truly adopt social media as part of your communication processes.
Just remember what’s said online
– stays online.
