[via]
if you know me in real life like most of my friends do, you'd know that i am always the last person to jump in any social media bandwagon. you might ask, "but you have a blog?!" yes, that is true but the blog didn't happen until years later either. when everyone was on friendster (remember when it still existed), i was still on e-mail and text messaging. then myspace came along. i finally signed up for friendster. then facebook was the in thing. i was still dealing with myspace. when twitter was starting up, i decided to sign up for facebook but did not put a profile picture or any other information five months later. so, now i got facebook, sure, why not blog, right? it's like pulling teeth with me and social media. if it weren't for my friend leesh, i wouldn't be on twitter. that was 2010.
my work doesn't have a strict policy about social media, but with the obvious, since i work with children and families, we strongly object to any of our staff becoming social media friends with the families we serve. that is just a straight up boundary that needs to be established. for myself, i am friends with my fellow administrators, but not with my staff who i supervise. my twitter account is mostly people i know back home in l.a. and my dearest blogger friends. i may have a few scragglers who aren't from those circles, but they're pretty cool people, in my opinion. i don't really tend to go with the higher number of followers because i kinda like being able to "talk" to all of them, so i'm not sure if it'll be the same if i had 700 followers.
my friends on the other hand who live in l.a. (they all work for the same corporate company), has very strict rules and i never really realized how social media could highly impact someone else's job. they work for a firm who deals with high profile clients in los angeles, so social media is a no-no. what does that mean? no facebook or twitter at all? well, within limits. very limited limits. they have facebook, but their friends are really pretty much close knit family or people like me who don't live within the area. otherwise, for them, if they see you often, they don't need you to be on their facebook or twitter. they have a profile picture, and some information like school they graduated from but no other photos - especially those photos when you can't remember anything, y'all know those moments? yea, those moments, or even if they're staged. why do you ask? should their clients feel inadequate on the service they receive, they could potentially use facebook or twitter against them and the company. if you know l.a. like i do, every one is entitled to sue anybody. it's just the way it is.
sometimes it sucks for me because they are my best friends from college and of course, when i am back home in l.a. and we kick it, i want to share photos with you all - no can do, for that same reason. one of my friends on twitter decided to follow one of them (they don't know each other) only because of the lakers, my friend (from college) blocked the request. yea, that's just how crazy it can be at their work. don't know you? you'll out of sight, out of mind, out of their social network.
does you work care about social media?
does your work have strict rules about it?
HA!!! Yes, mine does frickin big time and I know you're talking about me and a couple of others here! It's all good, I knew you were gonna write about it.
ReplyDeletework probably does have rules around it but they don't restrict it (thank god). the company i work at has its own twitter handle; for once, they've finally gotten with the times and realized that twitter is a powerful form of communication so they have their feed and watch for any type of customer service uprisings. if they see one, they jump on it and assist immediately before it goes viral
ReplyDeleteI don't want anyone at my work to know I have a blog and that I am on Twitter and Pinterest. There are though, a few who follow me but I try and hide the fact that I am on social media.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, this was a GREAT post! SO informative & a great topic to post about! It's so funny how the social media scene is a HUGE thing in everyone's lives nowadays! My work doesn't care about the social media & what you have posted on it. But for some people that I know, it's a HUGE impact in their work life. Some are so strict! But on the other hand, I know I am VERY careful as to what I post, whether it be a pic or even a status! I don't post all of my business out there. I post what I want everyone to know. If it's personal, believe me, it stays OFF the internet! I always respect everyone else I know as well & if I want to post something about them, I'll ask before I do so. It's out of respect. I do that b/c not everyone is ok with certain things or even the internet in general. I do that also, b/c I want that same respect back. Some people have no shame & post everything... and I mean EVERYthing... about their lives! From drunkin pics to upset arguments with their loved ones! It's like REALLY?! Why do that? Also, I would never want to be percieved as something or someone I'm not!
ReplyDeleteI know I rambled on but I LOVED this post! I think I might have to do a post on this as well! Hopefully that's ok!!
- Tina
http://officialstinad.blogspot.com/
I was a managing editor of a corporate beauty blog back in 2008 so they had me sign up for all of the social networking sites. I had Twitter and FB before any of my friends did. And now I work at another company that is big on social media so I pretty much blog at work :)
ReplyDeletehaha, I love that you go at your own speed with all the media. nice job. better than rushing in and not knowing what the H to do with it.
ReplyDeleteI imagine in a teaching position/field like you are in- you need to be very careful since there's always the "impressionable child" factor. That would be reason enough to be wary. I know I don't know your exact position but I imagine that would be the gist.
My work is super strict about everything. They would probably block their employees from having FB or anything else if they could... but since they can't, that's just the way it goes. I earnestly imagine from time to time if my Boss read my Blog- would I have to talk to them about anything in particular? And I don't think I would- I never write about my work outside the scope of general comments and so I always feel okay. But for good measure, my blog and my twitter are not findable when you search me. And I keep my FB on lockdown- so I am cognizant of the potential and I try my best. I guess we'll just cross that bridge if we ever get to it!
Social media in the workplace can be such a delicate issue.
ReplyDeleteI used to work at a small clinic and would access social media sites on the computer. Stupid I know but hey everyone was doing it. There was the unspoken permission. But for some reason, the IT guy hated me because I was VERY knowledgeable with computers. So that motherfucker blocked me from using Facebook. It was so ridiculous. Everyone else had access to it with their logins. I was totally singled out. When I brought this up to the doctor I worked with, she advocated for
Me and demanded he give me back my FB access.
But then again, I guess it all depends on the company you work with. Some are lenient and some just have sticks up their asses about it and it's understandable why. I don't like to be friends with people from work online. In fact, I actually deleted my FB account.
I don't tell co workers about my twitter account and blog.
Excellent post btw. Sorry I rambled on.
My current job isnt strict about it, however I use social media in a way that is conducive to what I wouldn't mind an associate knowing about me. So everything I post on twitter and Facebook are surface. Someone could actually know a lot about me if they follow me on twitter and my blogs, but it's random stuff that I wouldn't mind a stranger knowing. I stopped posting where I am and what I'm doing when I created a new (most recent) twitter account. Everyone doesn't need to know that.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with the part about how many followers you have. I'm like that too because I like to interact!
Good post!