We All Have a Social Media Past

“Social media is a permanent archive that can be used proactively and reactively to out anyone on any subject.”

A simple statement that most of us truly do not grasp.  When you are in a position of power within a company, social media can easily be your downfall, as Drew Adamek admonishes in his article, Keep your social media past from haunting you. “Remember that a stain on your reputation will last forever via a simple Google search. It is up to you to manage how deep and wide that stain runs.”

Adamek goes on to offer six, detailed steps that an individual can take to best manage past social media gaffs while encouraging those in higher management to employ a team and take their advice.  “Trust your team to manage the response, even if you feel like fighting back or defending yourself.”  He closes the article reminding us all that it can actually be simple to keep the past from haunting a career.  “The bottom line is that it all comes back to common sense,” he said. “Would your content bear the scrutiny of front-page news?”

 

Word of Mouth

We often see social media rants about products, but do they actually represent how we feel about the brands or are they really just a way to blow off steam?  Janet Morrissey for the New York Times explores this question in her article, Brands Heed Social Media. They’re Advised Not to Forget Word of Mouth and reminds companies what studies show.  Even when we put things out for the world to see, the words from our mouths the next day may be a very different story.

Instagram For The Win

As social media use continues to escalate around the world, you might be surprised to learn who is leading the pack.  Even with over two billion users, Facebook isn’t growing at the rapid rate of Instagram, who last year gained 100 million users in six-months.   Farhad Manjoo for the New York Times dives deeper into the intricacies of our love for (and frustrations with) social media in his article, Why Instagram Is Becoming Facebook’s Next Facebook.