A Social Media Lesson

I learnt an important lesson about Social Media today, and luckily I didn't make the mistake to have to learn it.

A colleague of mine, who is keen to develop Social Media connections, decided to Facebook Message all of his Friends (all 274) about his new Facebook page. The problem was he didn't think about the consequences of his actions.

Before he knew it many people on the list were writing back and complaining, what he had overlooked what that all 274 people messaged had had their details added to the header. So everyone could see everyone else and everyone could see everyone's replies.

Just like an email out to 274 people showing their email address, he had breached people's privacy and insulted many of his friends. You see the 274 people he is friends with, aren't necessarily friends with eachother and some (me included) were blissful in knowing that only a hand full of people could access their names, information etc.

The moral of the story - although you may have good intensions (be they self interested or not), ultimately you need to consider the medium that those good intensions will be broadcasted.

Martial Arts Instruction, mine especially, could learn a bit from this lesson. How often do instructors say something, with the best of intensions, only to insult or put down our students? This is definately something I will take onboard for future classes.