Why Facebook-Liking Your Company is Lame

Freedom, Rights

Now that social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, is pervasive even among our moms, more and more companies are adding official social media policies to their employment contracts.

Most companies are worried about employees spending working hours updating their Facebook profiles with drunk and possibly naked pictures of themselves from the previous weekend, or saying nasty things about work policies or fellow employees. Often, companies have strict instructions that employees are never to mention work on their personal sites for fear that an indiscreet employee will make the company look bad.

But what if your employer asks you to use your personal social networks to promote the company by recommending products, talking up new features, or linking to company blog posts, podcasts, or video? Does your employer have the right to infringe on your personal web presence? Is it an invasion of your private life outside the company, or a reasonable request?

Evolving Social Media Etiquette

There is no law that says a company cannot ask its employees to tweet or Facebook company propaganda, and the issue is rarely mentioned in company policies. Some social media experts warn against it, though, not only because it is an invasion of the employee’s privacy and personal Internet presence, but because it’s annoying to those on the receiving end to be spammed with too much of someone else’s work stuff.

There will always be some employees, especially in startup companies where they may have a stake in the company’s success, who will want to share stuff from the workplace. Most business experts advise requiring employees to have separate, industry-specific Facebook or Twitter accounts for that purpose. Others recommend that companies provide guidelines about what is or isn’t appropriate to post on a personal account. But the lines about where work and personal social media should or shouldn’t cross are still very fuzzy and what is appropriate, or not, is still evolving.

Reverse Psychology

Companies who want to promote their company’s web presence by asking their employees to Tweet or link to them need to keep in mind the psychology factor, which is that people are naturally rebellious when it comes to being told what to do, especially when they feel their personal boundaries are being pushed.

Whereas an employee left to his own devices or even encouraged by peers in the office might naturally post work-promoting links on his Facebook, when the Big Boss suggests it, the employee is going to be more inclined to push back. Being asked to promote work in your personal life isn’t the same as being asked to do the work you were hired for, so it’s likely to cause some grumbling among the ranks.

Uncool Factor

Part of the issue, too, is that people spend a lot of time and energy creating and maintaining their social reputation on sites like Twitter and Facebook. Especially for people under 35, social media is a huge part of a person’s life outside of work, and what people post there matters a lot. Most people don’t want to nix their cool factor by spamming their friends, because most people know that it’s a good way to get unfollowed or de-friended.

Except When It Really Is Cool

The exception, of course, is if you work for a company that makes you look good, or if the work-related link is actually highly entertaining and something you would share anyway. What if you worked for a company with a high level of cool factor, such as Nintendo, Gawker, Pixar Studios, or you were, say, Tina Fey’s personal assistant? Then you might be down with sharing, probably early and often.

Maybe your company is ordinary, but you find some of its blog posts to be worth passing on. If that’s the case, though, you’ll probably share without being asked, right? The point is, if you’ve got the goods, the linking will naturally follow. Companies that spend some time and come up with awesomely clever ways to grab everyone’s attention are usually well-rewarded for their efforts, like Burger King, which ended its famous whopper sacrifice run with approximately 200,000 FB  friends de-friended.

Everybody Chill Out

Some argue that, despite good intentions, social media policies really don’t work.  Luckily, we don’t live in a Big Brother society quite yet (not entirely, anyway), and employees are still allowed to have private lives, including online. As social media grows even larger, employers are going to have to figure out where the boundaries are and respect them.

Meanwhile, employees should realize that their older supervisors really may not understand just how much of an imposition it is, and try not to react with overt reactions of hostility. Eventually, everyone will get it and appropriate separation will be the norm—especially if we react to overstepping requests with calm professionalism. After all, our work reputations are at least as important as our reputations online.