1. Don't Engage in Inappropriate Conduct Online
Sometimes "inappropriate" is a gray area... a married congressman sending pictures of his crotch in various states of undress to women-not-his-wife meets most people's definition. I won't dwell, or finger-wag, but I wanted to start with the obvious: the easiest way to avert a social media disaster is avoiding the inappropriate behavior in the first place. And remember, the Internet never forgets.
2. Check the Recipients
Who are you sending this to? Think about it every time. Are you publicly tweeting, or sending a private direct message? Are you posting on someone's public Facebook wall, or sending them a private Facebook message? Are you replying via email to your friend, or did you hit reply all? When you're sending something private, make sure you're sending it privately... which leads nicely in to point #3...
3. NOTHING IS PRIVATE ON THE INTERNET!
This goes double if you're a high profile person... ya know, like a United States Congressman! Before idiotically tweeting his underwear to the world, Weiner only sent pictures of his genitals in "private" messages. This explains why nobody knows about them... except for everyone in the world with Internet access, thanks to conservative blogger, Andrew Breitbart.
4. Lying Only Makes it Worse
The truth will come out and you will look just as bad as if you admitted the misconduct in the first place... plus everyone will know that you're a liar. If people (the public, your wife, your employer, whatever) are willing to give you a pass for the underlying misconduct, you might not be so lucky when it comes to lying about it.
Same lessons, different day. And for employers, it may be time to double-check the ole' social media policy.
Image is public domain as work of the federal government.
Posted by Philip Miles, an attorney with McQuaide Blasko in State College, Pennsylvania in the firm's civil litigation and labor and employment law practice groups.
It is true. The golden rule is being discrete in social media. In that way, we retain our reputation.
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