Is your image on the Social Networks clean and polished?

Anyone who is on SMO (Social Media Online), knows the importance of image. It can either make you or break you. You need to think twice, or thrice, or more before you post something. 

A recent example of a post gone wrong is the one by Gianni Morandi, an Italian singer of the sixties (but still active on TV and VERY active on the social media.) A few years ago, on a Sunday, he posted a picture of himself with shopping bags in front of a supermarket. He published the picture with the caption, ‘‘Taking the wife shopping on Sunday’’.  Apriti Sesamo as the Italians say! (Open Sesame) All hell broke loose. The poor guy was attacked right and left! His fans (with fans like that, who needs enemies)  lashed out at him for shopping on Sunday. You shouldn’t shop on Sunday; the poor workers have families but they’re forced to work; because Sunday now is like any day, we must stop this practice of shops being open on Sunday. It’s illegal! It’s immoral! It’s uncivilized! And so on and so forth.

This scandalous post made the headlines of Italian newspapers; it was on national, Italian TV, it was all over the web. Gianni, totally embarrassed, published another post in which he apologized for shopping on Sunday and ended it saying ‘‘No more shopping on Sunday.’’ As you can imagine, this time he got attacked by the ‘‘pro-shopping on Sunday’’ people. This is to show you that you can’t please everybody.

If shopping on Sunday caused such a mayhem online, imagine if you post something that’s really controversial. Many people have had to close their accounts due to the vicious comments they received, after posting  what’s on their mind.

What are the rest of us to do? Gianni is a public figure so in a sense he is most likely to be closely scrutinized and attacked. Common folks like us, who are less known, can perhaps get away with posting just about anything. But remember that even though your posts are seen only by your ‘‘friends,’’ they will be online forever and these so called friends might spread the word.  “Hey, you know so and so said such and such a thing?” If it’s just a harmless picture or post it might not cause any serious damage but if you take sides or if you review something unpopular, you might regret it. Recently, a McDonald’s opened in our small town. The first one ever! Immediately  someone created a Facebook page, criticizing McDonald’s and warning people about its dangerous food. I am not a fanatic about McDonald’s but it reminds me of my childhood in New York so I was quite excited about the opening. I went there on inauguration day, took pictures and published a blog post on the event. I then shared it on my social networks as is my usual practice. Well, wouldn’t you know it? On Facebook, a friend (a person I know in real life), commented under my post ‘‘How dare you eat there and publicize it?! They’re damaging local businesses. Their food is unhealthy’’ and so on. I wasn’t going to let him get away with it so I wrote back, ‘‘If you don’t like it, don’t go there. No one is twisting your arm; but don’t tell me what to do.’’

In conclusion, be careful about what you post and where you post it.  Your online image depends on it.