Companies need to develop online behaviour policies that are ‘future-proof’
Derek Sankey
Sun
Rod Miller, regional vice-president of Robert Half Canada Inc., says social networking sites are proliferating rapidly. Photograph by: Ted Jacob, Canwest News Service
Twitter is just the latest social networking site to rise in popularity at viral speed, yet despite the plethora of the sites — Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and others — people still appear to be struggling to manage their online identities, or personal brands, according to technology insiders.
“There is this proliferation of social networking sites,” says Rod Miller, regional vice-president for Robert Half Technology in Calgary. “The challenge that we face comes back to your personal brand image.”
Miller’s research shows there are between 100 and 120 popular social networking sites being used worldwide and they continue to grow fast in popularity.
Facebook boasts 200 million users, LinkedIn has 40 million, Twitter has 25 million “and that’s growing really fast,” he says.
The problem is recruiters are among those users scouring the Internet to help determine if job candidates have a suitable character and values to be the “right fit” for the company.
“There are still people who believe my work image is very different than my public image, but unfortunately . . . that’s all beginning to get blurred,” says Miller. “Who you are is who you are 24/7.”
In one recent example, an employee who thought she was having a “private” conversation on MySpace made negative comments about her boss, who later saw the exchange and fired her.
A Utah attorney-general accidentally revealed his senate bid through an inadvertent Twitter exchange he thought was private, yet could be viewed by anyone with a Twitter account.
“People are seeing the need and value of getting their heads around [managing their online brand],” says Phil Gomes, senior vice-president of digital integration for Edelman Digital in Chicago.
“Companies now are seeing the need to integrate these policies into whatever company handbook they distribute,” says Gomes.
Rather than advocating an online behaviour policy that presumes to “run your life on and off the clock,” Gomes says employees and employers need to have a common understanding about what’s expected of them in the online realm.
Even use of language is up for debate. “It would reflect badly on me and my employer, just the same as if I was at a bar screaming obscenities and my boss happened to be there,” says Gomes.
Miller says employees must actively manage their online brand image by being diligent about not sharing too much personal information. Activate and use the privacy settings available on most social networking sites. Only add friends you really know, make certain photos are private and ask friends to ‘un-tag’ you from photos you don’t want the boss to see.
“Google has a long memory,” says Gomes, noting that images and information posted to the Internet accumulate infinitely.
Companies, meanwhile, need to develop online behaviour policies that are “future-proof” to a reasonable degree and “platform-neutral,” meaning they recognize the changing nature and platforms being used and developed.
“The best policies . . . look at the threads of commonality that make up for good online citizenship across different platforms and web destinations,” says Gomes, who authored Edelman Digital’s policy.
It’s not always easy to be safe by creating separate accounts or using different applications for different groups of people — work life, personal life, family life.
Yet it can be one strategy to help avoid embarrassing or destructive situations. Gomes, for example, is less selective of who he adds to his Facebook account, but he’s very picky on LinkedIn, a professional and business networking site.
“These things are necessarily a work in progress, but I think that thoughtful people online are rethinking how they comport themselves,” says Gomes.
“Over time, I think it’s an instinct that people are going to develop.”
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