One of my more popular posts these last few months has been this one: How to Remove Embarrassing Photos from Social Media.
I thought I’d follow that post up today with a second post about how to change your privacy settings on social media, so things you don’t want to be seen by the outside world… don’t get seen.
Of course, the most important thing to emphasize here is that nothing is 100% safe. Even if something is not shareable, there’s always the screenshot option. So, if you have any fear whatsoever of something you post online coming back to bite you in the ass in the future, just don’t post it. The end.
However, if you, like me, have kids, you may want to increase your privacy settings around what you post of them online. I always think that if I do something dumb, and have a negative consequence because of it, then that’s my fault. But if I do something dumb and my son suffers the consequences of that… well, that’s something I’d have a really hard time living with.
Having said that, social media is a great place to share memories of your kids. It builds a kind of online scrapbook that they can look back at later, and allows you to share your kid’s growth and development with family and friends who don’t live nearby. Check out this really interesting article on the pros and cons of sharenting that was recently posted last week.
Obviously, it’s not just about my kid. It’s about my own personal brand. I recently had a conversation with a girlfriend of mine, who is in a very similar business to me. She was on a beach vacation, and a friend of hers took a bathing suit photo of her and posted it to Facebook. We had a very interesting conversation about all the questions that came up around that post–both from a personal (feminist) perspective, and from a business perspective. These are all decisions we have to make on a daily basis.
Online photos of you, we all know, can impact your business, your career, and your relationships down the line.
One thing that you can do is to make your accounts private (for Twitter and Instagram). This is great for privacy, but not great if you are trying to use Twitter or Instagram to grow your business or your personal brand. So, when in doubt, don’t post.
On that note, here’s today’s infographic: How to Keep Personal Photos Private.
Infographic courtesy of Studyweb.com