Working with social media can be a “cool” thing to proclaim. People may be jealous that I spend quite a lot of time, legitimately, at work on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, often not as much as I would like.
However I do now have to ask, has having social media completely taken away the freedom we once had?
I recently attended a union meeting that included advice of how to behave online. Basically they gave the following advice:
*Don’t list your employer online
*Make sure that your privacy settings are as strong as possible
*Don’t be “friends” with your boss/manager
Fair enough. But why can’t you do this if you know how to behave online? I am friends with my manager on Facebook and I do list my employer on there too. It is my personal account. I have a limited friends list. I often do friend culls. probably less often that I should do.
Something that I have been told recently is that every time Facebook do an update not the service, they often reset the privacy settings on your account. So it’s worth giving your security settings a good check every so often.
So what is correct behavior online?
Good question!
I’ve seen this question answered in a number of ways over the last 5 years whilst I’ve been working in digital marketing.
My favorite is don’t put anything online that you wouldn’t want your nan to see. Good idea!
How about don’t put anything online that you wouldn’t want your boss to see?
Everyone needs to remember the following:
Everything you put online STAYS ONLINE, FOREVER
It never goes away. Despite deleting all your statuses on Facebook. They DO keep a log of all your activity. It will be around far longer than you will.
You need to be aware of what your security settings are set to
Don’t just presume things are ok. It’s your responsibility to take care of your own accounts and your presence online. If you put that you’re out having a heavy drinking session with the girls and somehow your ex turns up, just think how he could have found out. The worst setting on Facebook is the “Friends of friends” option. Right… I hope I kind of know my friends well enough to know I’m not friends with any wrong ‘ens. As I always say, good criminals don’t get caught! But you have no idea who your friends are friends with.
Also, if you have your profile fully locked down to friends of friends but tag your friends in it, this opens up this status to be seen by their friends. If you post something and then they share it, only your settings keeping it private with prevent this content being shared.
Something else you need to consider is what content you like. I’ve often seen short videos or gifs that may be related to having a bad day at work. I did used to like these because I innocently thought “this is very accurate” or “it’s my profile, I can like what I want”. Wrong! So wrong. For example, imagine it’s around Remembrance Day, you see a picture of a poppy floating around good ol’ Facebook saying “Lest we forget”. What a lovely tribute, you may think. This may have been the case once upon a time, but not now. Check where the sources of this content. I’ve heard of an incident where someone had done this but she didn’t realize the content she’d shared casually originated on a Britain First post. If that’s your cup of tea, fine. But some people may be deeply shocked to think that they are unsuspectingly being associated with such extreme groups without thinking.
This post it not a lecture about how to behave online it’s more some points to consider. I’ve been witnessing some behavior online recently that has been done without thought about any repercussions. Every time you post you need to think:
Could this offend anyone?
Would you say this to your nan/share this with your nan?
This is where my question about freedom has come from. Are we now being silenced on a platform we once saw as being free? Yes. Of course.
I’ve created 6 easy steps to follow when staying safe using social media. Click here to view the post
Just remember to stay safe guys!!
