This is the first of a 3 part series.
I have learned many tricks, rules, tools, lessons, Do’s and Don’ts using Social Media over the past 5 or 6 years. I am by no means an expert but I can give you bits and pieces of my history for you to make an educated decision.
Part One….DO NOT POST ANYTHING THAT NEEDS A BACK STORY or something that can be twisted. This is probably my most recent encounter with social media. I posted a picture of a competitor while they were in the lobby of my client site with the following statement attached: “Here is a picture of one of my competitors that insist that they are not a competitor……..the picture was taken at one of my clients. Maybe they’re right, between doing business with this person and The Horn…………. there really is no competition!”
Back Story
The competitor mentioned above had recently met with the CIO of one of my clients and tried to convince the CIO to stop doing business with my company (WHO DOES THAT?). The end result of that meeting was that the client continued to do business with my company and the person that I had posted, along with their company, was dropped as a vendor. Additionally, the posted person’s Branch Manager had been emphatically stating that my company was not a serious competitor, nor did we work with the same clients. So….you can imagine how funny it was to get a picture of the Branch Manager’s salesperson at my client site and it was the very same salesperson that had tried to bad-mouth my organization and lost.
Now for the spin
Unfortunately, a co-worker of the posted salesperson saw the share on my Facebook page and attempted to spin the message and picture posting as an assault on the salesperson’s appearance. The co-worker went even further by disclosing that the person had previously battled a serious illness. Just as an FYI, that is a documented and serious violation of HIPPA laws (SHAME ON YOU! WHO DOES THAT?). I immediately removed the posting because of the ugly spin that the competitor was trying to put on the posting and the attempt to re-cast my image as a bad guy. The competitor actually contacted at least one of my clients to further their agenda and put a negative spin on my posting (REALLY? WHO DOES THAT?)
Lesson learned on what NOT to do
What did I learn?
- DON’T EVER post a share that needs a back story
- Do not post something that can be taken out of context
- Don’t post something that needs further explanation
In addition to the example above, there are more examples on what NOT to do. I have shared a couple below (yes, I am a little slow and it takes more time for me to learn lessons than most people):
Example I: Let’s say you are a candidate that has been interviewing for a Project Manager position with a large company and the position requires a great deal of responsibility. You decide to post a share of you and a group of friends at a party having a great time using multiple pictures of the event. Whatever your intent may be, your posting could give the perception that you like to party and could call into question your ability to perform. Your future employer may not know that it was only the second time in a year that you have gone out to have a drink or that it was a party for a college friend that you haven’t seen in 5 years, etc. etc. It’s unfortunate that a scenario like this could be true but it actually happened to a candidate that I was representing.
Example II: You post a job that states “Still looking for a C# Developer with Agile experience and eCommerce.” The problem is perception and the platform of communication. A Linkedin or Facebook share only allows for so many characters to convey your story. The post above could tell me that you are having trouble finding someone for your position by using the word “Still”. I would have no idea that you have been looking for only 1 week and I may have already determined that if you are “Still” looking for someone, your environment must be terrible. Once again, no Back Story. I posted the statement above on Linkedin and had more than one person respond to the negative.
Another valuable lesson that I learned is that you need to be aware of your connections. I made the mistake of having a competitor as a connection on Facebook. This is a mistake I will not make again and I will NEVER share a post that needs the All Important Back Story. I’m lucky enough to have a forum to squash any negative spin or agendas that other people may have. I sincerely hope that everyone can take something from my experiences, positive or negative, and learn from them. Social Media is a great tool for recruiters, candidates and hiring managers to get jobs and messages to a wider audience.
In upcoming articles I will touch on additional experiences.
Coming Soon…Part Two: The upside and downside: Managing Connections and Posting Jobs