We live in a social age. Never before have you been able to see what is happening in real time across the globe, connect instantaneously with friends in different countries, or have access to immense information on any given topic you choose. Part of living in such a social age is developing and refining your social presence.
When considering your social media presence I think two questions need to be considered: what you hope to get out of social media and what you hope to provide to social media. Do you want to be an observer; push the information age forward or a mixture of both? Should you only want to use social media for its access to knowledge your presence will be relatively small. When you only receive your digital footprint is less. That said, should you be in a position to share something with the world that you believe truly benefits it, your presence is as big as you want to make it.
As professionals, choosing the latter, the responsibility then becomes about how to share and focus your footprint in providing information that is useful to others while being respectful at the same time. Although this is a constant balance I think, simplified, it comes down to asking yourself two questions: 1. Does this align with what I believe and 2. If the people I work with/for were to see this, would this affect how they see me in a negative way. Ultimately taking a second to think before you post can often be the difference between posting something that is harmless and posting something that could effect your career. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, and often times people don't think before posting, and there are plenty of people just looking to stir up trouble. Therefore, there are plenty of opportunities to fall into controversy and argue. As you build your social media presence it is important to consider when commenting may have an impact and when you are just adding to the fire. Sometimes silence speaks the loudest and part of being a leader is knowing what platform to speak on; because social media isn't always the best.
The risk with social media and the digital age is that anyone can see what you post, which makes everyone even more accountable to their actions then they were before the digital age. Things aren't forgotten, they can resurface at any time; there is no room for doubt, as everyone sees what you post. We see it everyday with celebrities and sports stars, people in the spot light, uncovering tweets or pictures from their past, that puts them in media and ultimately the publics eye for controversial statements.
As leaders, more people care about what we say, and our influence is greater, so everything we post must align with our views, we must be aware how these views may influence the employer we work for, and we must think about how each post impacts the social identity we are trying to project to the world.
Brayden Sharp-Chrunik, BSc
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