Xander has just yelled at me to go, So we're just straight into this bonus episode of Big Business Welcome Back Today. We are chatting about something that's quite relevant in twenty twenty four, the risks associated with putting your staff on social media. Now, I did get a comment or a message somewhere like last week, and I saw it and I thought, oh, I want to talk about that. Someone was asking about, like how we go about putting
our staff in social media. So I thought I would give you all a little spiel on how it works at Fate because there can be a lot of risks involved with putting your staff on social media. So one thing that we're huge on in our workplace is consent when it comes to being on social media. Obviously, we have two employees, Claire and Emily. They are directly employed for our social media, so it's a given when they
are coming into their brand new roles at Fate. They know that they're signing up to be on the Fate social media team, which means it's just a given that they're going to be in content. They know that, as for everyone else that you see in our content, like you'll see all different random faces here there and everywhere on our socials, they give us consent every single time
that we are making anything. It could be a fun real Last week we did the hear Me Out cake for Fate where we all had a different character and we stuck it into the cake. We ask every single time, would anyone like to be in this video? Never do. We just have the expectation that everyone at any given moment will be happy to be in content. So let's say, for example, Claire, our social coordinator, is heading over to she wants to go over to the warehouse and she
wants to film a bunch of different videos. She will give our warehouse team the heads up that hey, tomorrow or in two days, I am coming to the warehouse, and she'll even get give them a rough idea of what she wants to film. We're going to do a trivia and then we're going to do this, that and the other. I just wanted to let everyone know and that I'll be keen for anyone to be in the content if they want to, so we don't ever just show up and go be in this. I think that's
really important. Same if we're like going around the office and doing a little trivia story series or an outfit of the day or whatever it may be. We ask for permission every single time, Hey, Sam, do you want to be in this fit check video today? Never do we expect people, especially those who aren't in our social media team, to just be willing and ready to be on our social media And if someone says no, I'm not feeling up for it today and they just want
to work at their laptop, that is so fine. There is no hard feelings whatsoever. So that's a huge one for us. That adds for Claire and Emily. Sorry, you've got to be in videos whenever you have, Bloody told you, because that's part of your job. Now, what are some of the risks of putting your staff out there on social media? There's obviously a lot. Number one is you're exposing them to an audience. And whereas I guess, for me, I have ten years of experience being on social media.
I have ten years of being exposed to who knows who that could be watching my videos. I have over ten years experience of people commenting on me, my looks, my appearance, my life, my thoughts and beliefs. I'm used to that. When you are putting a staff member out there to an audience who doesn't know them, and they don't know the audience. You're opening up a whole can of worms. And really, if you want to think about it deeply, you could be opening them up to potential
online bullying. You could be opening them up to being harassed online by random strangers or commenting on their appearance. Touch would. There's no bloody would in this podcast studio. But we've never experienced that at all, where you know, any of our employees have experienced negativity online. If anything, if we're doing like a I don't know, video of our opinions on something, you might have someone go Claire's
wrong or whatever. But we've never, you know, had the experience of someone being hated on on our social media. But I think we did see it. It was TB H Skincare. I can't remember what video. They did, something about women working in the office, and it went viral on TikTok. It was only just recently. I can't even
remember what the trend was. But then it just obviously hit the wrong side of TikTok and all these men were commenting the most vile things about these girls in the video, and they were just like their office employees, you know. So that's just a huge risk in itself that we're you know, putting our staff out there for the world to see and anyone can comment on them.
So that's something to just be super mindful of. I guess another thing I guess that plays part in showing your staff on social media is no one's going to work at a workplace forever, and you will have staff
come and go. And my advice would be, if you are going to be putting staff on social media, let's say that you're wanting them to kind of become the face of your brand, make sure that employee is happy in your business and that they're in it for a while, because I think the last thing you want is to have a new staff member every second week on your social media and you're trying to make them the face
of your brand kind of thing. And remember as well, especially if you have an audience online, you're going to have people comment when they notice that someone isn't in the videos anymore and the awkwardness that may come with that. Online audiences don't have a filter in a way. For example, we have one team member who has been on leave for quite some time now and people are starting to
comment where is this person? Where is this person? And whilst it's all well and good for people to comment that and say where is she She's not in any of the videos, audiences don't realize that they don't know why that person isn't in the videos anymore, you know, and that just becomes a really fuzzy, little gray area where something bad could have happened, or maybe that person
isn't working at that business anymore. So that's just another thing that you've got to be really mindful of is when you're putting your staff on social media, you're essentially going to be creating connections between them and your community. And then if for whatever reason, that person isn't going to be in your content anymore, you're going to have people asking. And it's not the end of the world.
You know.
Someone commented the other day, where is XYZ person in our videos? And I said, they're on leave at the moment. But I think audiences like need to learn to have a filter when it comes to that kind of stuff. Sanda, you have a question.
I do have a question. What would you do if you had shot a lot of content with a staff member, they've then chosen to leave the business and they've said to you, I don't want me in any of your content anymore. Can you please remove the videos?
I'd do that out of respect. I mean, it just depends how they left the company as well. Yeah, you know, if it was on completely good terms and they just were like, hey, like I'm going off into work wherever and I don't really feel comfortable having my face on your social media because of my new job or whatever it may be, then I'd be like, sure, like let's look at archiving those posts. But then if it was just someone being like an absolute asshole, and I'd maybe
have like different feelings about it. But it would just completely depend on the scenario. In my mind though, Like content that is old, like it doesn't matter anymore anyway, Like there is hundreds of videos all the way down our page, and like once a video has reached its certain amount of life span, like its views redundant. Yeah, so I wouldn't have any issue archiving those posts kind of thing, And We've never had that type of experience.
But even so, again, depending on how the employee left. Let's say I had a bunch of content already filmed that we hadn't posted yet included that person. I think, just out of respect, I probably wouldn't use that content either. I just go, look, we're gonna have to let that content go to waste or reshoot it again without that person. I think, Yeah, depend on the scenario, but I wouldn't have any issue with just archiving privating those posts that
they were in. Yeah, that's my answer to your question.
Thank you, please you make quick.
Obviously, in twenty twenty four, we are seeing the rise of employees be in content. We are seeing employees become the faces of businesses and brands, which I think is really exciting and clever and so modern. I guess like I'm loving seeing this rise of staff being in content,
but it also does come with its risks. So my advice to anyone out there who is in business and if you're wanting to get your staff on your socials, be careful with it, be mindful with it, Understand what you are exposing them to, and be huge on consent.
Don't ever force someone to do something that they're not one hundred percent comfortable doing, even if it's you know, someone that's in your social media team and they're in content all the time, but there's one particular trend that you're doing that they don't want to be in or they don't feel comfortable being in. I think it's important to respect that and understand everyone's boundaries, especially when it
comes to being put out there on the Internet. It can be a load of fun having your staff be on social media, and obviously it's really exciting for us because we have people that are hired to literally be on our social media, which is super cool. Like, fucker, if I wasn't doing what I'm doing now, I would go and be a social media girly at some business because that's just like the dream role, just having fun
and creating content. Like all things, this topic comes with its risks and it comes with its benefits, and I think it's just all about finding that balance and being huge on consent and respecting you know, what your staff do want to be seen as on social media, and at the end of the day, have fun with it and be safe.