Where do we draw the line between personal and professional identities? A lot of it probably depends on how you define a “personal” identity and a “professional” identity, but the basic idea likely remains the same: your personal identity is what you’re like outside of work, and your professional identity is what you’re like during work. But what does it mean when your personal identity interferes with your professional identity?
This issue existed before social media, of course. However, what makes social media unique is that, depending on what account is being used, you are granted an illusion of anonymity, which might be a problem if you fall into a certain state of mind. Not only that, but if you use social media in your daily life, it’s very easy to slip up and use language that might be acceptable for a personal account, but not a professional account. The company Twitter accounts of Wendy’s and Burger King has been mentioned by a couple of other students, but I think there’s an aspect to them that’s often overlooked: both Twitter accounts might be entertaining, but they are also EXTREMELY belligerent in ways that are, quite frankly, unprofessional. It’s one thing to use Twitter to advertise your company’s 2-for-1 burger special; it’s quite another thing to use your company’s Twitter account to cuss out your competition.
In my opinion, it’s important to have a good grasp on both your personal and professional identities. You wouldn’t go into work with a massive hangover (or at least, you shouldn’t), so why should social media be any different?
You've drawn an interesting comparison between professionalism and brand accounts. When I think of professionalism on social media, I think of something that has a person's real name tied to it, and their behavior may or may not be considered to reflect on that of their employer. For example, if I post on Twitter with my real name, but I spend my time on there sending harassing messages to other people, posting pictures of myself doing illegal things, et cetera, that might be considered unprofessional and if my boss found it, I could get in trouble. (Ethics of employers policing someone's behavior outside of work hours aside.) Brand accounts, though, are run by employees (or a marketing company on their behalf) on the clock to represent them. I think of the more controversial tweets, such as saying that other brands are terrible or whatever, is maybe a tactic to get people talking about them and maybe an attempt to try to cultivate a moment of going viral? It's kind of like in professional wrestling when someone takes on the role of the heel. They probably have fine working relationships with the other wrestlers, but by playing that role of calling them out, getting the crowd hyped up, creating that drama so that people tune in or buy tickets, they make it so that they are talked about and people have strong opinions about them.
ReplyDeleteThe weirdest part of Burger King or Wendy’s acting unprofessional on social media is that it is absolutely a calculated marketing decision. They’re banking on people still believing that it’s some unpaid intern in charge of the social media accounts, instead of teams of people pouring over analytics trying to find the best way to appeal to people. They want their brand to seem “relatable” to people, so people decide to buy their products. Their belligerency and lack of professionalism is meant to endear them to people who either find it relatable or funny in the hopes they’ll support them.
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