Brand Camp University | Personal Branding 2.0 - Hajj Flemings

Last week I was on the periphery of a social media storm. One of my colleagues, Anthony Rotolo, wrote a blog post surrounding an incident on Twitter that involved (mildly) negative tweets, employees from two different companies in hot water, and public relations people in turmoil. There are stories in the news almost daily about someone who has gotten themselves into trouble for tweeting something offensive. The problem is there are so many different ways to be offensive and people that could possibly be offended.

As a result of the incident mentioned above, I have seen people a) protect their tweets and b) change their Twitter bios in order to add disclaimers that say ‘these tweets are my own and do not reflect the opinion of my employer.’ Watching this situation unfold got me to thinking. Who is really free to say whatever they want, no holds barred, on Twitter? Answer: hardly anyone.

This is the bottom line: you are always representing something when you tweet. You are either representing yourself or the entity that you work for. If you work in social media, you are most likely representing both.

Here’s a few things to keep in mind as you tweet:

If you work for a company

• Know your social media policy. Follow it to the letter. If something goes wrong, you can be sure that the policy will be looked to as a point of reference when considering any action.
• If there is no social media policy in place, ask for guidance. Simply the fact of asking the question might bring the topic to the fore and precipitate a social media policy being instituted. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.
• Know who your company works with. Who are your compaany’s partners, suppliers, distributors, etc? For example, if I worked for The Capitol Grille, I probably wouldn’t want to repeatedly send negative tweets regarding Red Lobster, since they are both owned by Darden Restaurants.

If you are self-employed or a student

• Consider who you want to work for. Most students will go to work for an organization, public or private, after graduation. All individuals who are self-employed need customers or clients. In addition, you may need partners, suppliers, etc. Don’t tweet negative comments regarding these potential employers, partners, customers & clients. You never know when it could come back to bite you.
• If you feel constrained, consider maintaining two accounts. I have seen this happen when students want to portray a professional image to potential employers, but still want to interact authentically with friends. You can either protect your more personal tweets by locking your account, or use a twitter handle that doesn’t reveal your true identity.

Social Media Professionals

• Check your attitude at the door when responding to negative tweets. You are representing your employer and every person you interact with on twitter should be seen as a valuable potential customer. If someone ticks you off, take a deep breath, go for a walk around the block, or whatever it takes to be able to make a response with a clear head. Now is the time to maintain a consistent voice.
  

Everyone

• Think before you tweet. If you think it might be cringeworthy, it probably is. I know that thinking twice before hitting send has personally saved me from some regrettable tweets.
• Don’t tweet under the influence. (You fill in the blanks)
• Every tweet you send is building on your personal brand. Are you enthusiastic? negative? cynical? opinionated? Most of the people who follow you on Twitter don’t know you personally. You are being judged entirely on your tweets. Make sure you are representing yourself the way you want to be regarded.

This post may seem overly wary and cautious, especially coming from someone who works in social media. However, with a certain level of comfort comes complacency. All of us who have been on twitter for a while can use a reminder that this is not a cocktail party with our friends, this is a public platform. For all the free flow of information that twitter represents, we need to be realistic and cognizant of where the rubber meets the road. One hundred forty characters may seem like a little thing, but they can mean the world if they cost you your paycheck.

As with any paradigm shift, the behavior changes first and then the culture follows. A very wise colleague of mine has pointed out that the expectations of employee conduct have not yet evolved to include practical social media guidelines. Until this evolution takes place, it’s best to proceed with caution.

Have you ever regretted sending a tweet? How do you feel about having to censor yourself on Twitter, or don’t you bother? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic.