Oversharing on Social Media – Or Not

In just a short amount of time, posting on social media (and especially Facebook, Twitter, Instagram – and LinkedIn for business) has become an integral part of our daily routine. We stay in touch, share news and information, maintain visibility and recognition and build our personal and business brands. Most of us check our social media platforms at least once a day and for many the check in occurs multiple times per day.

We do our posts from our phones and tablets, often without too much forethought and sometimes the posts are quite valuable and insightful and sometimes, well, not so much.

And sometimes they are simply a case of TMI, too much information.

So what exactly do I mean by too much information?

Well the easiest way to think about TMI is to consider whether you would feel comfortable saying the very same words that you posted to a large crowd of people, including some that you know and others that you don’t.

And the picture you’re posting. Would you be comfortable having that picture on display in your office?

Sometimes we lose sight of the vast number of people that are actually going to read and evaluate the words that we’ve posted. It’s simple to hide behind our technology and feel somewhat impervious; after all, it’s impersonal, because we can’t see, feel or touch the people that are reading our words and thoughts. We are so removed from them that we post things that we would never say or reveal in almost any other situation.

Yes, TMI. Personal thoughts and feelings about friends, family, work, religion, politics, just about anything at all, out there for everyone to read and consider. Sound bites if you will that can be taken incorrectly just by the very sheer nature of the medium that is being used to convey the message.

In the world of social media I’m a true believer in “less is more” and a staunch advocate of stopping to reflect on what you are saying BEFORE you hit send.

An ounce of prevention and all that!