As I scan through my Facebook feed I wonder how some of these people’s bosses would react to what they posted..or the image they have created of themselves and the indirect connection to their employer.
Well, as a former boss to many I can tell you what most of them will think..or at least should think about how their employees image on Facebook will reflect on their company or business’ product.
Many Facebookers are going to ask how their Facebook account can be linked to their job if their job is not mentioned anywhere on their Facebook Profile. Too many times Facebookers mistakenly take for granted what is not posted on Facebook will never been known. Anytime people socialize online or offline the conversation of who they work for or what they do for work is going to be mentioned. Even if the information is kept to only the Offline environment that information will be brought online through the knowledge the offline contacts have of the person on Facebook. Eventually or inevitably this information is connected to consumers online from offline social networking.
“Hey, did you know that Kathy Smith is now working for XYZ?” This one statement on Facebook can start the inquisitive search many consumers (and in many cases competitors) will use that leads to ‘Kathy’s’ Facebook site where they could find Kathy’s unflattering image posted on her Avatar as the first impression of who is working for that company.
Many are going to say this scenario of investigation is far fetch and will never happen. For those who feel this way, it is unfortunate but in depth searches are happening and there are businesses that do a very good job of searching out everything about a business.
Don’t Care!?!
Overall bosses really didn’t care about what their employees do on Facebook as long as it is legal and has no reflection on their businesses. However, most bosses are not aware that what is posted on Facebook is picked up by Google and other search engines.
How am I to know what all my 500 employees are doing on Facebook? I am sure what my forklift driver is posting on Facebook isn’t going to hurt my business.
Sometime search engine searches will bring up an employee’s photo or status update just before or after a product search done by a search engine. Sure, the employee talking about how drunk they got at a bar is taken as part of the Facebook image. However, even the best employee will let something slip about “my boss is screwing customers with bad deals…we have a product in the warehouse my company is going to push off to people that I wouldn’t buy…the place I work for sucks”. Not too much is private anymore out here in La-La-Land, and with consumers digging deeper into searching out every bit of information on a company before they do business with someone this issue should be a huge concern for companies.
Photos Are Concerning.
The photos and videos employees post to share with friends can sometimes not be what employers are interested in being associated. It is hard to explain to a inquiring customer why when they do a search for the company’s site a reference to some photo of young people drinking comes up right after the link to the company. Sure, most people are going see the photo of the girl drinking as youthful exuberance. However, many are going to see the photo of the girl drinking as the reason the customer service is poor or the quality of product at risk of being put together badly.
Policies Kill
A few of my corporate executive friends report they recently have placed social networking policies in their code of business conduct. When asked how that policy is working I heard many stories on morale and grievance issues. It seem the policies was observed by most of the workforce but caused the company problems with the misguided younger employees who feel social networking restraints are too harsh. In a few cases personal social networking policies were not working.
Positive Approach
In discussing the issues it became clear a more positive approach to controlling a business’ online image would to be a better way of going about securing a business’ online image. A more positive approach would be to ask all employees to set up a Facebook account and offer up the guidelines to follow which includes what style of photo and what kind of posts they should make. Then also provide some leniency on personal content. The company could have a monthly contest for the most created Facebook post. The advantages would be for the business to turn around a rigid image online to unleashing onto Facebook their most powerful asset..their workforce.
Yes, Facebook is fun but has developed way beyond the college dorm bulletin board site. The information posted on Facebook is public and can be found very easily. In reality there are some very large concerns and issues businesses should have with what their employees are doing online. Those company’s employees should be conscious of what they are doing on Facebook could be effecting their paycheck.
All of this is what you should be keeping in mind when you jump up and start a Facebook account. Think about how you look to others before you think about how you look to yourself.
As far as Twitter’s impact on a company’s image…geez, don’t even get me started. Happy social networking and let me know how I can help.
