One of the best pieces of advice I ever hear on social media was simply this: don’t do anything stupid on social media!

In a post from the CBC.ca website entitled “U.S. marines in urination on corpses video left Afghanistan” we see a picture of US marines urinating on corpses of Taliban fighters. We know this stuff goes on folks. But this stuff does not have to be prime time, and make it’s way to YouTube, for example.

Having served as a reservist, I understand in a small way the frustrations of those serving overseas. Losing friends, seeing death in many places and trying to fight an enemy who seems elusive in many ways. Many things don’t seem fair or right. But this stuff does not need to be made public. Those that shared this really need to give their head a shake…know what I mean guys? And by the way, “Thank you for your service”. You had to do stuff that that most of the public would not have the guts to do.

Now I am not approving what these guys did to the corpses. But we need to recognize what good they did. Many of these guys lost their best friends to an enemy that does not fight fair. They have seen things that man should never have to see. But again, they need to be smart about what they share with the rest of us.

There are countless videos, pictures and comments that have gone prime time that should never have made it online. Somethings are best kept private. This brings me to the point of this blog post. We need to supervise what our employees post on the Internet. And we need to watch what we put on there as well.

Here’s another example of what I am saying. There’s been much talk around friending the boss on Facebook. But it gets really bad when you call in sick and the boss sees a picture of you jumping the waves in your skies at the lake at rocket speeds. Or how about the comment he sees where you are telling others how much you hate working at your job. Or what about the comments about you nonprofit and how they are wasting the donations coming in.

As a leader of a business or nonprofit, your people need to understand what your expectations of them are and what kind of stuff they are encouraged to post; and not encouraged to post. People need to understand what things are not appropriate for prime time. They also need to understand how to post privately; and what goes public.

Need another example, how about the story of the two police offices talking about a corpse of the road and referring to it using words that the general public would not find OK. Both officers thought they were sharing privately on Facebook; when they were really sharing publicly. What a PR nightmare. People are sharing really crazy things that they need to keep private. Remember that once it’s on the Internet, it’s on there for life.

So should we stop sharing period. Hell no. But we need to make sure we think about the ramification of what we share. What’s the worst thing that could happen? We need to ask ourselves this before we hit the submit button.

In conclusion, I leave you with the advice I started with: don’t do anything stupid on social media!

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