Facebook is where most every aspect of my life collides. There, my friends include people from grade school, high school and college; people I worked with at three of the five post-college jobs I’ve had; people who I have met via social media and some I have worked for as a contractor; and my immediate family and extended family like cousins.
My professional and personal lives.
Twitter is similar to Facebook in that the lines are blurred between professional and personal in who I follow and who follows me.
But, hey, that’s social media, right?
So listen up all you companies: You can’t really have your employees tweeting, facebooking, blogging, etc., just about your company. Personal aspects will naturally flow into those messages.
And that’s a good thing. Sure, go ahead and have guidelines and policies to try to ensure that those tweets are not bashing the food you serve or other potentially negative social media mentions. But, do know and trust that it won’t be all business.
Because life is not all business.
Because life is social.
Because social media is, well, social and, as I just said, it’s life.
Social media is nothing more than a set of tools that, among other benefits, allows companies and organizations to add a very personal touch to their often cold aura. You can enhance your organization’s brand, reputation, image — whatever — by making it more human.
And, by being more human, yes, it will make mistakes and look bad at times. But, people are forgiving so accept and move on. Ultimately, your organization will be better for it — or it will be if you listen and learn, and help your people be your company.
Okay, rant over. Move on with your day.
Thank you for taking the time to read. Please leave your feedback if it’ll make you feel any better.
-Mike
Image: “red lines” courtesy of Claudio_r at http://www.flickr.com/photos/28571975@N08/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
