Do you have a policy on how much you’ll share on social media? I’ve had a lot of requests to post photos of my family on my Facebook page. For a variety of reasons, I’m reluctant to share much personal information about myself on the internet. I know it’s not a popular view, but I’m sticking to my guns on this one.
1) My social media presence is connected to my business, Global Copywriting. Most of my user ids are “globalcopywrite” or some variation of that name. It also happens to be the name of my company. My family does not work in my business, so including their pictures in a social media profile would be inappropriate.
2) Once you post photos on Facebook, they enter the public domain. While it probably wouldn’t bother me to have my fans/followers/connections see photos of my family, I certainly don’t want to make those same photos available to their wider networks.
3) Once a photo is in the public domain, you can’t control what happens to it or how it’s used. Paul Pichugin knows this all too well. Channel 9 News used a photo of his that was posted on his Blaque Studios Fan Page. They refuse to compensate him or even give him a photo credit. It’s good enough they’re using it in their promotional collateral but when he asked to be recognised as the photographer, he got a letter from their lawyers.
4) I don’t feel comfortable defining a social media presence for someone else. While I’m prepared to promote my business online and suffer the consequences if I take an unpopular position, it’s just not fair for me to expose my family and friends along the way.
I’m a big fan of using social media as part of my overall marketing strategy. I’m not so inclined to use it in my personal life. While business and professional boundaries blur and overlap, putting my family into the public domain is something I’m going to continue to avoid doing.
What is your opinion about posting personal information in social media channels?
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