Asked to use personal social media to promote work

[Sockypuppet]

I'm not an owner or partner of my business. Just an employee. People in my life know where I work.

Boss/owner regularly asks us to use our personal WhatsApp and Facebook accounts to promote his business.

Loads of us are just quietly... not doing it. If I spam my job to my personal contacts they'll just mute/hide me.

Is this a normal thing now?

I would refuse.

I would also refuse!
But it’s common.

Depends on what it is.
I work for a company that by the nature of their work, have the ability to take amazing photos. If I am out in site I will take photos and share on linkedin and instagram. On Instagram it's not to promote my employer but just because it's an amazing photo.

I know a pilot who posts views from the cockpit, or time lapse videos and always mentions who he works for. Amazing scenery.

It really depends on what it is.

That was long. In short does it fit with your usual stuff you post?

But if you dont want to, I cant imagine they can make you.

It is more normal/ professional for your employer to expect you NOT to post anything work related on social media, because of the risk of reputational damage if employees post stupid shit, as many of them will.

Which channel? If he's asking you to promote it on LinkedIn that's perfectly reasonable, if personal Twitter or Facebook less so.

Thanks for responses.

He wants us to post the number and address of our office and say, "We offer xyz services!"

So a straight-up advert.

On WhatsApp and Facebook as mentioned above.

If something interesting happens or I go to an interesting location I will post about it, just in a natural way.

But randomly posting an ad is gross.

But help me articulate why.

No. Your personal Facebook is just that.

Its personal. I would imagine of a friend is seeking the particular service you provide you would tell them about your company. But straight up adverts, isnt something they can enforce. It like trying to force you to put advertising on your private car.

And so what do we say when he asks why no one's doing it?

This is a small niggle in an otherwise great job.

And please no responses of, "I'd tell him to fuck off and go straight to the union!" This is the real world.

I'm not on FB and Twitter etc. Are you able to just say that? You should all agree as colleagues to post the ad but spell it wrong or get the number wrong on purpose and ge might decide he can't trust you to do it properly and not ask.

I work for a charity and sometimes we’re asked to promote campaigns etc which I don’t mind doing from time to time, there’s no pressure put on us to do so though.
Straight up ads though is different and he shouldn’t have an expectation for anyone to do that.

I would explain that the endeavor to keep a line between personal life and work life.

That the risk is that some people will decide to contact you for information, complaints, queries etc not appropriate on a personal facebook page.

You would of course recommend the company to any friends who were looking for their service. But that people would likely mute people posting adverts in personal pages, therefore not achieving anything.

What would he say if you said that you prefer to keep your personal and professional life separate? Is it becoming such an issue that you can’t just keep on quietly ignoring it?

He’s also getting a financial advantage, not paying for ads.

Does he have social media accounts for his business?

It’s also not very effective! He needs to re think his social media strategy 😂

Personally I would just quietly not do it; and would also talk to him about how it’s not the most effective marketing. It’s much better for him to set up an account and use interesting content targeted at the right audiences. Easy to see how effective it is then. He sounds a bit old fashioned.

If directly challenged I would smile and say "sorry, you know what a nightmare social media can be. I prefer to keep my professional and personal stuff separate so there can be no issues". Inside I would be thinking cheeky sod 😁

weird - our social media policy tells us to never reveal the employer on private social media.

Just kindly explain that you prefer to keep work and your private life separate, and then don’t do what he asked.

I work for a massive well known corporate. We were once told, not asked by a twat of a senior manager, with a sales background and more than his fair share of arrogance, to promote our products on our social media at least once every couple of weeks. I have neither FB or Twitter and I certainly wasn’t going to put our logo on my Instagram 😂

In any case I think someone made an official complaint and his instruction was withdrawn shortly after.

just say you like keep private life and work separate. done.

If you see someone asking for recommendations and your company does what they’re after, then I’d recommend.

But I wouldn’t outright advertise.