Drunk pictures on Facebook seem pretty common place now.
So much so that when young working professionals stop posting stupid crap online, The New York Times considers it newsworthy. Geez.
Go click on the link above and read about young people smart enough to keep their private lives offline.
Don’t Gossip in the Workplace
My Dad gave me some good advice when I was an intern during college, and I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. He told me, “Joe — don’t ever say or do anything in the workplace you wouldn’t feel comfortable with the boss, and everyone else, knowing about — because they probably do.”
The reason I think about those words is because even though most people don’t post vulgar pictures online, way too many still do. What are they thinking? Or not thinking?
First off, start thinking of yourself as a brand and the Internet as a third party PR machine. You can control some of the things that get said, but not everything. So manage the things you can control, especially by making time to review your Facebook privacy settings.
And guess what?
It’s cool to ask friends not to post pictures of you in compromising situations (if it was me, I’d grab the damn camera out of someone’s hands if they snapped a drunk picture and press ‘delete’). It’s tricky when even our phones are digital recording devices, but you have to stay alert.
So let’s assume the worst has happened and you find an unflattering picture online. If it’s on Facebook, you can petition the Facebook Help Center for assistance. Lesser known sites will usually respond to takedown notices from a lawyer, so consider investing in legal help if it comes to that.
Pictures often sting because they can be so much more expressive than words. People love salacious photos because they feed our insatiable curiosity. My advice is you manage your brand by carefully choosing the words you share online and using good judgment when cameras are present (which is always).
Oh yeah, and don’t lie. If something happened that can’t be undone, just come clean and cop to your mistake. We all make ‘em, after all.