Archive for the ‘pictures.’ tag
Social Graces: Twitter and Facebook
It is becoming increasingly common to see swearing, rumors, anonymous complaints and incriminating photos filling the walls of Facebook and Twitter.
I have often asked myself, “Why would people do this?”
Have these people forgotten that this is their public profile? These photos and posts are entering the World Wide Web, and once they are there, they are there forever.
Sure, for some people this is not a big deal. They are happy with their place in life and pride themselves in being a social rebel. If you fall into this category, then this post is not for you.
Others will say, “But I set my profile to private.”
This makes them feel safer about the truly embarrassing content they are posting. Privacy settings still provide a false sense of security since people will inevitably add more friends or followers than they can manage. Also, people are not naturally inclined to deny friend and follower requests simply because they wish to secure their “private” information.
We live in a Web 2.0 world where everyone is on the web. I remember in my online job search, I previewed all of my potential future bosses, and several company executives said that they have even checked my Web site, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts.
Six months before I graduated, I attended a seminar about job hunting. Again, from another executive, I heard two stories. One woman was fired because of her Facebook profile and another who was not hired due to her “exotic” Facebook photos.
Remember that when you are participating in social media, it is no different than being in any other social environment. Remember you are always being judged. People are like dogs, if you leave something juicy out on the table, they will investigate.
They are looking at your pictures, reading your blog posts, noticing your comments, and making judgments about all of them.
So give yourself a social media audit. Remove those pictures from last Friday night; swear in private, or better yet, not at all; and don’t give way to rumors. People are always watching.