"These views are my own..."

The caveat that graces several million Twitter bios (including my own), and that is required by just about every social media policy going.

Now that I’ve added that disclaimer to my bio, I’m free to turn the twittersphere blue, endorse politically-incorrect causes and indulge in tweeting some offensive ‘jokes’... right?

Wrong.

Everything you post says something about you and adds to your overall digital footprint, which can say a lot about you. Check it out - Google yourself and see what you find, I’ll wait...

... Done? Did you like what you saw? Would a current or potential employer like it? Would clients or customers of that employer like it? You had better hope so, because it reflects on them as well.

If I see an employee of a charity posting offensive comments online, am I more or less likely to donate money or volunteer with that charity?

If my broadband contract is up for renewal and I see that a customer support officer at ‘Broadband Provider X’ tends to tweet highly offensive jokes, am I going to want to deal with that person when my connection drops?

Those examples may be trite, but if your employer has seen fit to employ you, that is both an endorsement of your skill-set and of your personality.

But I don’t reference my job in my bio

That doesn’t really matter I’m afraid. In the vast majority of cases it just takes a quick search and a few clicks to find the person behind the twitter account and to figure out where they work.

That all sounds a bit depressing

It doesn’t have to be. Protecting your employer by being careful with your posts also protects you. It helps you to avoid tweeting a stream of expletives when your football team concedes a goal and it helps to stop you getting involved in pointless spats online.

I dislike the term ‘personal brand’, but it does have a place here. Do your online posts reflect the personal brand that you would like to present and market?

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*Disclaimer* The tone of tweets mentioned in the second paragraph are not indicative of the sort of content I would like to be able to tweet. The sort of tweets that I want to (and do) post are sometimes a little bit grouchy, but mostly pretty safe (some might even use the term ‘dull’)

Team follow-back and naive social media ‘professionals’

I received a rather depressing LinkedIn Group email the other day. I won’t name names, but it was a group for social media professionals. The top threads, in order, were:

1. A Twitter follow-back thread
2. A Facebook Fanpage mutual-like thread
3. A Facebook Fanpage mutual-like thread
4. A Facebook Fanpage mutual-like thread
5.  ... well, you get the idea

I have no doubt that there are many similar threads across a range of LinkedIn Groups.  I struggle to assume good faith in these circumstances, but I do hope that these threads are based on a naive approach to social media rather than something more underhanded – We all took some time to learn the ropes when we started (didn’t we?).

It’s easy to understand the thought process behind their approach; ‘A greater Twitter following, or more likes on Facebook will mean that potential clients will take me more seriously’. This may be correct when securing a contract with a client unfamiliar with social media, but it won’t do them much good when it comes to delivering on that contract.

This results in a hoodwinked client throwing away money for a sub-par service and potentially tarring the reputation of sharp and hardworking consultants at the same time (That’s me, and possibly you if you’re reading this).

Despite a willingness to believe these threads are the work of social media noobs, the people creating and posting on these threads are advertising themselves as a mixture of social media and digital professionals - freelancers/consultants, agencies and client-side - when they clearly are not.

Rant over, if you are new to social media and fancy carving out a career in the field, check out some of these links to help you get started:

• Arie Moyal on metrics: Thank you, Wow and Done - The only 3 metrics you need 
• Arie Moyal on worrying trends: 3 Worrying Trends in Social Media - Part 1: Competitions and giveaways
• Emelyn Chand on bad practice: Cease and desist: 10 bad Twitter practices to be stopped immediately

So, what do you think: Are you a client that's been burned by a bad social media consultant experience; are you  a consultant or freelancer that's equally frustrated, or, are you someone that thinks follow-back is great? Let us know your thoughts