You do not own your employee’s social media accounts

Recently, I’ve noticed more and more small businesses and groups “asking” their employees to change their cover or profile photos to the branding of the organization they work for. And while some managers understand this is a fine line, others have lobbied their teams to help promote the group’s brand.

You know how that happens, don’t you?

First, the team manager gives a request that goes something like this: “Hey, wouldn’t it be great if we helped promote our business and we all changed our cover photos to brand image? It just so happens that having some works of art we created and it would be great if each of you would go ahead and upload it to your social media accounts. It’s a team effort! You don’t have to do this, but…”

And then you have the first person on the team to go ahead and change their profile picture or cover, and the next thing you hear is the manager making a clear point to acknowledge that team member. I’ve even seen a few situations where managers have repeatedly asked, always qualifying it as not “required,” to see if a team member who hasn’t changed their private social media settings intends to. You know, not-so-subtle pressure.

This is my suggestion for you if you are a team leader or manager and would like to have some team spirit for the team.

• Please ask once and once only and provide the artwork, if any team member ever wants to help your group spread the word.
• However, you can do what I do and not ask anything. Period.

Honestly, my marketing team has said to me, “Wayne, let’s ask the team to promote one of our social businesses or businesses on social media!”

I’ve never been enthusiastic about the idea, and I’m not sure I ever will.

I think we should have a separation between work and personal, as much as we can. I know some people think it’s “old school” but the reality is that as a leader I understand that if my team has a personal life and the business world doesn’t invade them all the time, they will be happier and more productive.

There are also some practical and legal reasons not to ask your team to promote your business or group on social media. It is particularly true when asked by managers with the “subtle” pressures that can sometimes occur when they want their team members to support the organization.

• Employers have the right to ask their employees not to be on their personal social media accounts during work hours. That’s a legitimate request for employees (but not for contract workers, freelancers, or non-salaried consultants).
• Can you demand, even subtly, that your employees support your organization? The short answer is no. don’t Social media accounts are the personal and private property of the owners, in this case, each of their employees. So, just like you can’t demand them to give you the keys to their houses, you can’t ask (ie “wait”) them to promote the business on their accounts.

But what if you want to make it at least an option for your team to promote your company or group on their social media accounts if they want to? Yes, you can make social media art and images available to them, let them know it’s a resource for them if they ever wanted to use it on their accounts, but that’s about it. In some cases, you or your employees may be put at legal risk because promoting your business on your social media accounts for business gain may violate the social media terms.

The bottom line in the age of social media is that if you want to build team spirit or have an amazing product launch and want to get your team involved, you can provide the resources. But you can’t force or pressure them, or do anything other than allow each person to do what they’d like to do, if at all, on their personal social media accounts.