Social Media Etiquette for Events
No doubt about it, social media has changed our lives. We can easily stay connected with family and friends across the country and around the world. Businesses increasingly use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube for marketing. All are simple to use, making it easy to fall into the habit of quickly posting or tweeting about where we are, what we are doing or what we think, sometimes multiple times each day. But sometimes those posts can backfire.
Today, employers and potential employers increasingly monitor social media. Suppose an employer sends people to a training conference only to later see posts such as, "Lame speaker" or "Bored out of my mind." The employee attended the conference to learn new things, not to spend time on his/her phone or the Internet critiquing the speaker or topics. Doing so could result in a reprimand or, unknown to the employee, a write up in their personnel file. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube should be off limits when on the job unless they are a legitimate part of the job.
Potential employers can learn a great deal about people from their social media posts or posts about the potential employee, everything from their attitude toward authority to their eating and drinking habits, so be careful and be honest, particularly when posting career-related information on LinkedIn or a similar site.
Tweeting or posting about social events may open the door to additional problems. If someone receives an invitation to a wedding, graduation party, shower, or another by-invitation-only event and tweets or posts about it, the post may be seen by someone who was not invited and whose feelings could be hurt. Or, worse yet, the post may be read by a potential stalker or an ex-boyfriend, girlfriend or an ex-spouse.
Posting photos of an event, particularly of the guest of honor, without permission is also inappropriate and may offend. Though you may want to share, it may not be your place to do the sharing when someone else is involved, nor should you post photos before the guest of honor has an opportunity to post her/his own. It is one thing to share photos of the venue or the decor and quite another to share photos of participants or attendees without permission or knowledge. It is acceptable, however, to post something generic, such as "I just attended a beautiful wedding at the Botanical Gardens."
Posting photos or comments about someone in a less than flattering situation is a definite no-no. Though you may think it is a joke, the last thing most people want is to have their friends and family see photos when they have had too much to drink or are engaged in some silly activity or are possibly less than fully clothed. Photos like that, and accompanying comments, have the potential to create major problems if an employer or co-worker happens to find them. What you may consider innocent fun, someone else may view very differently.
Social media has made our lives transparent to the world. So be careful what you post, when you post and how you word your posts. You don't want your words or photos to come back to haunt you.
Today, employers and potential employers increasingly monitor social media. Suppose an employer sends people to a training conference only to later see posts such as, "Lame speaker" or "Bored out of my mind." The employee attended the conference to learn new things, not to spend time on his/her phone or the Internet critiquing the speaker or topics. Doing so could result in a reprimand or, unknown to the employee, a write up in their personnel file. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube should be off limits when on the job unless they are a legitimate part of the job.
Potential employers can learn a great deal about people from their social media posts or posts about the potential employee, everything from their attitude toward authority to their eating and drinking habits, so be careful and be honest, particularly when posting career-related information on LinkedIn or a similar site.
Tweeting or posting about social events may open the door to additional problems. If someone receives an invitation to a wedding, graduation party, shower, or another by-invitation-only event and tweets or posts about it, the post may be seen by someone who was not invited and whose feelings could be hurt. Or, worse yet, the post may be read by a potential stalker or an ex-boyfriend, girlfriend or an ex-spouse.
Posting photos of an event, particularly of the guest of honor, without permission is also inappropriate and may offend. Though you may want to share, it may not be your place to do the sharing when someone else is involved, nor should you post photos before the guest of honor has an opportunity to post her/his own. It is one thing to share photos of the venue or the decor and quite another to share photos of participants or attendees without permission or knowledge. It is acceptable, however, to post something generic, such as "I just attended a beautiful wedding at the Botanical Gardens."
Posting photos or comments about someone in a less than flattering situation is a definite no-no. Though you may think it is a joke, the last thing most people want is to have their friends and family see photos when they have had too much to drink or are engaged in some silly activity or are possibly less than fully clothed. Photos like that, and accompanying comments, have the potential to create major problems if an employer or co-worker happens to find them. What you may consider innocent fun, someone else may view very differently.
Social media has made our lives transparent to the world. So be careful what you post, when you post and how you word your posts. You don't want your words or photos to come back to haunt you.
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