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I have a friend who most would describe as paranoid. I have yet to coin a term to fully describe him. He is, like most law enforcement, unusually careful about his back to the room, where he sits in a restaurant, nearest exit, yada yada. So his I did not find his aversion to Facebook and other social media very unusual. We often get into heated debates about why people should be on Facebook and why he has to keep defending why he is not. However, he may just be right. My advice this week comes straight from my Guide to Social Medial book, another blogger, Jay Baer, and a recent trip to a flea market.

1. KEEP IT SEPARATE!

 I cannot say this enough. Keep your private and business social media exploits separate from each other. You clients should never be able to see what your friends are saying about you personally. Nor should they know that you just had your annual exam and what the results were. PLEASE…..do me a favor. Check your privacy settings (Facebook, in particular has a new set to help keep private conversations private) and then have a separate wall for your business. There are plenty of tutorials to help you do this.

2. WHAT VALUE IS IT TO YOUR BUSINESS?

 I was in a flea market over the weekend and the conversation I had with the check out girl (who was young- 20-ish) made me question if people keep anything private anymore. Remember when your Grandmother used to say… “That’s family business” and you knew that meant to shut up.

At the Flea Market, this check out girl was explaining to me how her father was bi-polar and her brother had only been married for five weeks and that he had recently left his wife who went crazy and moved back home and that the wife took all of her mother’s favorite glasses so she was going to buy her some more but her cell phone was about to get cut off so she needed to wait until she got paid next Tuesday.  And she was surprised that her father didn’t have an episode when her brother moved back in.  And she was surprised that her father didn’t have an episode when her brother moved back in.

Seriously, she told me all of that within the time it took me to check out. Social media can be the same way. If you use social media to help your LNC Practice, make sure that you are not telling too much, i.e. your new and don’t have any cases yet or that you really screwed one up—(that has happened.) Always ask yourself, “Will this post, news clip or quote add or subtract to my business reputation?” 

3. WHO OWNS IT?

 This one is from Jay Baer, an excellent blogger. In his blog post he writes about protecting yourself from being sued using social media. One of the things that kicked me in the teeth and made me understand my friend’s Facebook phobia was the paragraph below.

Read the fine print. Have you read the Terms link provided by Facebook, Twitter or YouTube? In the case of Facebook, once you sign up for an account and click agree, you have granted them non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide rights to use any IP (intellectual property) content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (“IP License”). Did you catch that part about being transferable and sub-licensable? Basically they can take that gorgeous photo that you paid a photographer to shoot for your product, hotel or client and use it however they want. You don’t lose ownership rights, but you do lose control over how your content can be used. This is particularly important when managing branded client materials. Did your content creator (photographer, writer, designer) give you permission to post their work on Facebook or YouTube and hand over their control to Mark Zuckerberg?- Jay Baer, Convince and Convert Blog.

Ok, I’m actually going to open up that window when I click “yes, I’ll accept the terms” next time. Just a little food for thought for you Legal Nurse Consultant and Life Care Planning Practice. Check out our new book devoted exclusively to Social Media marketing for LNCs and LCPs here.

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