Chip Conley, the CEO of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, shared his internal struggle with posting his Burning Man pictures on his Facebook page at http://bit.ly/2qIml5 His pr advisors told him those pictures and his CEO persona could cause a misunderstanding about what is proper behavior. (I think it was his tutu picture that was the point of the discussion.)
Burning man is a one week retreat in the middle of a dust bowl with no food, no water, no showers, no cars, just what you carry in on your back or bike. It is intended to be an “out there” experience and from what people who have attended told me, you will see anything and everything going on at this retreat. When I say everything, suffice it to say, it is impossible not to be shocked at Burning Man because it attracts the freest of the free spirits and the edge is pushed more and more each year. I would guess not many CEOs attend Burning Man.
Which brings the question for all executives: What is proper to share on social media? The challenge with social media is that your personal and professional lives collide and for the “In the full disclosure of who I am” category it is actually a great resource for people to investigate who you are. Everything about who you are.
Employers are looking at social media pages such as facebook, twitter, and linkedin to see what employees and prospective employees are saying. The same goes for executives who are being “checked out” by employees, clients and competitors.
I have a number of clients who follow me on my personal pages as well as my fan page www.facebook.com/russelljwhite2 and they get the full me. But where is the Too Much Information (TMI) line drawn?
Would I share about my Saturday night in the strip club where I got 5 lap dances, had 8 beers, and was escorted out of the club by the bouncer for rude behavior? Would I share my disappointment about my employees letting me down? Would I go on a rant about how I hate Mondays?
Curiously, I have read each of these remarks by people who at that moment were employed somewhere. Is there a different standard for executives? I don’t think so.
Based on my observations the level of TMI has more to do with the age of the person posting than anything else. The younger people feel more open with their expressions and are willing to broadcast an almost open stream of consciousness. Conversely, some executives resist any contact with social media and prefer to remain a closed book. In either case, this is a misuse of a medium that is here to stay in some form or another.
Everyone needs to find their comfort zone. As with all media, there are the extremists on both ends of the spectrum who enjoy the shock value of what they put out there. Everyone has their hot points where they enjoy a good rant. For some people social media is their bullhorn to the world. Just keep in mind each post is an entry into your internet record which has public access.
The best advice I’ve heard about social media postings is to consider everything you write, link, or post would appear on the scroll at the bottom of a TV program and everyone you know or has contact with you is watching.
As a three year old I apparently walked into the middle of a ladies group home meeting and announced, “This is what my daddy does in the bathroom.” And I started to grunt. A three year old doesn’t know the difference between what public knowledge is and what should not be shared. As a three year old doing this, the ladies’ laughter to the point of tears was an expected reaction. What if I had been 18 year old? I image the reaction would’ve been very different.
Some things are best left unsaid in an open forum. As a guide for your social media postings, find where you audience is comfortable with your level of TMI, instead of where you are comfortable with your level of TMI.
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