Something I read recently got me thinking about the interaction between professionalism and social media. Can you be silly on social media whilst remain professional in your career? Now as you know, I’m an accountant by day (super hero by night) blogger by night.
Professionalism
During the day I’m professional with clients. I tailor my attitude to suit – I have a laugh with those clients that are easy going. Remain reserved with the more serious client. This is not me being fake. I have both serious and easy going sides to my personality. I just let one side out more than the other depending on the client.
Social Media Silliness
At home, I am a mother to two young kiddiwinks and so am silly. I am a blogger and vlogger and so I’m also an oversharer – I will say my mind to anyone in real life too. A natural oversharer. I share my silliness online for the world to see. I’m hoping that whilst I do share my silliness online, that it doesn’t have impair my professionalism. It doesn’t change my ability to sort out tax and accounts. I believe it makes me human.
Opinions of Other Bloggers
So I asked other bloggers what their thoughts are and there’s some interesting answers:
Sara from Jodhpurs for Maisie says: “I think you can but my golden rule is never to be Facebook friends with anyone connected to work. I also haven’t told people at work about my blog which may be a bit short sighted in the long run but I am just more comfortable with it that way. We all tailor our real characters a little at work, I have seen far too many people get into trouble, or loose respect due to some off the cuff comment on Facebook”
Pete from Household Money Savings says: “I work for the government in quite a serious role. But, by nature, I’m an incredibly daft person. My social media is all personal and completely separate from my work life. I’m quite happy being silly on social media (within reason) because that is who I am.”
Anonymous says: “Define silly really-as a teacher I have to be really careful with social stuff!(or at least feel a level of professional pride in doing so and assume all other teachers feel the same). However, totally comes down to semantics here. My blog is my attempt to put my experiences into some stored format, and I’m naturally quite a positive enthusiastic person so might come across as silly to others? Hope that makes sense!”
Epril from Eps and Amy says: “Few of my colleagues at work are my Facebook friends and they knew I do blog and some of them laugh at me when they saw a video or picture of me modelling clothes that I’m reviewing haha lol well, I’m a bit embarrassed but that way they can see my fun side. They usually tease me and we all laugh about it. I work at night that sometimes I can do a bit of blogging or social media when we’re just sitting but now I’m thinking I need to be careful as you’ll never know they might make an issue about it. I use to be open about me blogging now I don’t tell much. Also I don’t take photos at work even though sometimes I might need some due to our health category. Most of my fb friends are following us on our fb page that now I have to think before posting.”
Jenna from Then There Were Three says: “I have to be very careful about not mentioning the company I work for in my blog. The most I can say is that it’s an international airline. They have a huge social media policy and I know of a few people who have been sacked; not even for being bad against the company, small things like uploading drunk videos to Facebook and they have the company listed on their profile as where they work. I don’t have the company I work for listed as my job on fb but I’m still careful with what I write if it’s to do with work.”
David from DadVWorld says: “100% yes. There’s a line but I think common sense is enough to find that line. Your job shouldn’t define you. If you’re in a professional career you don’t have to live with out of work with a stick up your arse too 
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Kate from Kate On Thin Ice says: “I think you need to exercise caution but then again when you are yourself loud and true, you can be liked for that. Much sadly depends on your age apparently according to companies who are engaged by employers to check out candidate’s social media activity – so for example a young person might be forgiven for immaturity/lack of judgement where an older person would not be.”
Anonymous says: “Not these days. Social media is the first place employers will look when recruiting / interviewing. Personally I wouldn’t risk it – there are loads of media stories where the past has come back to bite the candidate on the bum!”
Conclusion – Professionalism and Social Media
I think it is possible to be professional and be silly on social media. The most important thing is to be sensible about how silly you are. Ultimately, I think you should just be yourself.
I think many people reveal too much on social media. From my point of view, if it’s something that everybody can see, then I will make sure what I share is something I’m comfortable everybody will see. So, I avoid talking about lots of things, including politics. While I’m acting silly at home, it’s not as I would act with others.
The truth is that many years ago I shared something on social media that was a bit too much (something annoying that someone else did). A relative told another relative about it and it was a whole loads of discussions about this. My mistake for talking too much online, even if it was something that I would have said to both of them face to face.
Great post! So great I’m going to talk about it on Instagram today. I really like this topic because no matter what job you have we all have one thing in common… we’re human. Minimum wage in the local shop or high flying lawyer, we are all the same!
People need to realise that you don’t have to act but you can have different sides to your personality. I know myself I’m quite complex, I can 100% be professional and serious but can switch in an instance to having a good old laugh. Humans are not one dimensional, if you are then frankly you’re boring!