5WPR Insights
Keep it professional
Only post content you’d love to see passed around a boardroom at your next big meeting. If you think your content will keep you from landing that big account, it’s better not to post it. Now, I know some people out there have two profiles, one “public” and one “private.” Guess what. There may be a setting on the social media, but there’s not such a thing as “private.” Just ask a certain NYC mayoral candidate.
Context cannot protect you
Any statement uttered in print or online or across Twitter can be ripped out of context and displayed in the most damning ways. Happens to some poor sap every day. He gets in an exchange with a friend or a frenemy and suddenly his daughter is reading an abbreviated version of part of one sentence on Reddit. Most politicians realize this, which is why they speak in carefully vetted sound bites. TV made open discourse nearly impossible. The Internet has only made it worse. Much, much worse.
Content never disappears
Some Internet users have learned a bit late in the game that “deleted” doesn’t really mean gone. And certainly not gone forever. Even if you pull a misstatement or unflattering image down, you better assume someone else has seen it and already clicked COPY and PASTE. Depressing? Maybe. Stressing? Could be. I wasn’t there when you went to Cancun on Spring Break. But if you were, and you did a few things you don’t want your kids, coworkers, parents or business rivals getting ‘hold of, you better make very certain it never appears online.
Ronn Torossian is the founder and CEO of 5W Public Relations, an NYC-based PR firm specializing in corporate and consumer public relations
Read more from Ronn Torossian:
Ronn Torossian on Forbes
Ronn Torossian on SoundCloud
Ronn Torossian on LinkedIn
Ronn Torossian’s Professional Profile on Muck Rack
Ronn Torossian on Business Insider
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