Facebook, twitter, myspace… these are now household names. Just last night at dinner, my fiancée’s family and I were discussing Facebook status updates (from my fiancée’s mum through to her 14 year old cousin). It is a wonderful tool enabling us keep in contact with friends, colleagues and family (both near and far) and to share our opinion with the world (even if it doesn’t want to hear it) but, it also has its bad side.

The news has been full of stories where university students have faced consequences for what has been posted on Facebook, and people posting slander about their bosses and colleagues…

Just Google “slander boss facebook” and the results just come flooding in…
Google “oxford facebook students” for the other prime examples…

I use Twitter, Facebook (updated mostly via my twitter and a Facebook app) and I have a MySpace (yet it is really not used) and because of that, I have a lot of “following, friends and followers” but the other day, one of the people I follow posted what I would term “questionable content”. It featured swear words and their employer’s name within the same tweet, and this provoked the following question:

As we are all individuals we have a right to say what we like, but should companies monitor / regulate what their employees say about (or involve) their company?

Creating a strong corporate identity is about creating an identity for your company that reflects every aspect of what it does, from the first point of contact with the customer to how employees feel about the organisation / company. As a freelancer, I am very aware of what I do online under the alias “vivilanco” (as well in my full time employment) and I have taken extra care not to post obscenities or discrimination on any of my social networking sites.

I know as the owner of vivilanco.com that I would never want any employees denting the identity that I have taken time, effort and love to build up but should employers regulate how their employees use social media?

I choose to leave this question open and I welcome your comments…