Some facts and figures on social networking as a corporate strategy, as well as commentary on representing your brand/company.
I find it amazing that people can’t seem to get it right when it comes to representing yourself and your company. I work for a very large public company, and our brand image is of primary importance. So I separate the work stuff from the personal stuff. On Facebook, I identify myself as an employee of my company. My facebook page is open to people in my networks (my company and Baltimore), and I update my Facebook page accordingly. Sure I have fun personal stuff on there, and a bit of political stuff, but I consider everything I post in the context that someone might consider me a representative of my company. So while it’s personal, it’s nothing I wouldn’t share with my boss, or with a customer, and certainly nothing that would embarrass my employer.
Here on the blog and on Twitter, I do not identify my employer. Sure, if you work hard enough you can figure it out, but these are personal spaces, with personal opinions. Even given that, however, I still try to keep posts clean, try not to engage in conversation or posts that would create an issue if someone does know who my employer is.
There’s a balance of personal and professional, and I don’t think it’s all that difficult to find it. Certainly if I were posting on Twitter as a representative of my company, my posts would reflect that.