This is Day 13 in my 30-day blogging journey.
If you don’t know the background, check out Day 1.
Social media is a funny thing, isn’t it?
You’ve got the ability to connect with others, share pictures with friends and loved ones, promote your business, sell your wares, or just vent.
Let’s talk about the last one.
When you’re equipped with a voice (or fingers and thumbs) plus some variation of a keyboard, the world is your oyster.
Your social media page (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.) is yours and yours alone to post what you like, how you like, when you like.
It’s also open season for anyone connected with you to view what you post, comment on what you post or unfollow you if they don’t like what you post.
They can also screenshot what you post so they have it for posterity…
One thing that’s puzzled me about social media behavior is when business owners/managers air their dirty laundry on their social media page.
Let’s assume “Joe” runs a business in an industry with high turnover.
Joe may not like the fact that he can’t keep staff on hand and, if he’s in the “right” mood, he takes to his social media page to let loose about it.
Now, if I’m connected with Joe, I might feel bad that he keeps losing team members but there’s the part of me that wonders if:
A) He’s “friends” with other staff members on his page who will see his vent
B) He’s looking for sympathy from other business owners who might commiserate with him
C) He believes that by venting, someone out there in the ether will be looking for a job and reach out to be hired
I have to assume that C doesn’t happen very often, but…what do I know?
Here’s my opinion (and anyone reading is more than welcome to disagree with me):
I think social media is a profoundly powerful tool for all of the reasons I mentioned above.
As we’ve heard: With great power, comes great responsibility.
If you have staffing issues, take it up with your staff.
If you need to hire people, direct message a few people who can help or reach out to a recruiting company.
By comparison, if you have to take to social media to talk about the need for help, try it with a positive spin.
Talk about the energy, talk about competitive pay, talk about your benefits package, talk about the flexible schedule.
But the venting?
You can do that privately.
Because when you need to hire again and your social media presence is indicative of how you handle turnover, I can’t imagine that people would be lining up to work with you.
Signed,
A fellow business owner who owns a business with great energy, very competitive pay, no current benefits package to offer and a very unorthodox working schedule (also with very low turnover).
(Photo courtesy of Eric Prouzet)
