When Rep. Anthony Weiner posted a revealing photo to himself on Twitter, the whole world found out quickly. His is a story of mistakenly choosing the wrong way to post on Twitter. But he’s not the only one.
Social media is full of examples of people who mistakenly posted the wrong way. They thought they were posting a message privately. In the end, the message or picture went out publicly too more people than they had planned.
Remember the Chrysler guy? What about the Aflac guy? What about the girl on Facebook who told everyone how much she hated her job and her boss; but forgot she had previously friended her boss. There are lots more examples of bad things that have happen on social media as well. So how could these mistakes have been prevented?
The answer is “training” for the most part. Besides Weiner, the Aflac and Chrysler guys could have gleamed some good info from training that told them when not to post. Sometimes, it’s best to keep your thoughts and pictures of yourself… to yourself. If you are going to post something on the Internet, you need to know what you are doing. And if you are tired, go get some sleep. Avoid doing stupid things. Make sure you think before you press the “Submit“, “Post” or “Tweet” button.
In this day and age, word travels fast. You need to be known for doing and saying good things. Not bad things. And you definitely don’t need pictures of your body parts floating around on the Internet. Once pictures are put on the Internet, they are hard to remove. And if they go viral, forget it.
I have to wonder about Weiner. Why did he do what he did? He certainly had more to lose if he got caught. When you look at his wife, she’s good looking. What’s going on there? We will have to leave it up to Nancy and the rest of the crew to sort that one out.
Lesson to be learned: “social media can ruin you quickly“. We used to joke that in my home town, your reputation could be ruined within 30 minutes. With social media, that’s probably down to 15 minutes. So be smart when you are online. Think before pressing those buttons. Ask yourself…”Is this what I want others to see from me”? After all, no one now wants to be a Weiner!
