Make The Most Of Social Media For Your Business….But Remember Your MBE

I love social media.

I keep meaning to get a T-shirt made with ‘I Heart SM’ but that’s another story for another day. It’s transformed my personal life and made my business, advertising agency The Goat Farm, possible.

And because I love it, I visit it all the time. If you check my personal Twitter account you’ll be either impressed or appalled that I’ve tweeted almost 80,000 times since I started. I’m less prolific on Facebook, Instagram, and Linkedin but I find time to give them some love too.

In a world where personal brand matters and your online life is pretty much an open book (privacy settings or not), sharing so much can be risky. So how do you engage in online communities and benefit from all they offer, while somehow avoiding the reputational risk that comes with a (typically) late night and (sometimes) drunken tweet or post?

One answer, of course, is to avoid social media. If there’s one thing it does, it exposes who you really are. Which is fine if you’re a generally good, helpful, friendly person… but not so good if you’re actually a bastard! (But who’s self-aware enough to know that, right?)

Assuming, then, that you’re a good, friendly, helpful person like me, there will still be times when you’re tempted to post something you might regret. Nothing’s going to prevent that 100%, but I have a little checklist that I try to run through if I have any doubt about posting.

JUST REMEMBER YOUR MBE:

M is for Mum: would you want your Mum to see what you’re about to post?

B is for Boss: how about him or her? Or even prospective employers 10 years in the future?

E is for Enemies: you’ve got them, right? What would they think or do if they saw your post or picture? Don’t assume your friends will keep a private post private.

The checklist doesn’t just apply to your own posts or pics of yourself… it’s not a bad idea to keep it in mind when posting pics of your friends and colleagues (especially late on a Friday night). Would they want their Mum, Boss or Enemies to see that?

Of course, not even a snappy checklist like that will keep you out of trouble all the time, but that’s life, right? Have fun out there!

Businesses are reaping more and more rewards from planting good social media seeds. If you think you might need to kick start or improve our online presence, get in touch with The Goat Farm today.