Thank you to the two unsuspecting teachers at Northborough Primary School in Peterborough whose Facebook rantings provided a textbook example of how not to use this social media tool.
Facebook is the undeniable global leader when it comes to Internet communication - it has more than 500 million active users with people spending over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook.
But the growth of this powerful phenomenon isn’t a green light to the world and his daughter to set up a page and start chatting away – particularly not if you value your professional career. At the time of writing, 132 comments on the teachers’ Facebook misdemeanour had been posted. Ironically, the online news item also made page 11 lead in the evening paper’s off-line print version!
Teachers, like many other professions, have to tread a very careful line when it comes to communication with the wider public. Other than parents’ evenings and school events, wider conversations through other channels are kept to a minimum.
And that has to apply to the staffroom too – by all means, have a moan about a pupil at morning break in the privacy of the staffroom – but that’s where it has to stay. And that applies to many workplaces and many working scenarios.
Trying to blame a lack of social media training (as the NUT has in this case) is a poor excuse. We are all responsible adults, we work, we interact with people, we understand how our communication is received and generally we know how public relations work and we put this into practice every single working day.
Facebook and other social media tools provide vital lines of communication for us all - both professionally and socially - it’s a case of learning the right tool for the job and not abusing the privileges each one provides us with – otherwise, it could prove costly.
Dawn Strange
Accounts Director
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Nice idea, i like and appreciate your post. Keep it up.
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