Social Media Bio: Views are my own

One area of social media that has always intrigued me is when people write: Views are my own on their social media profiles.

This is most commonly seen in Twitter bios.

Social Media does bring several legal considerations to our use of such sites. For example if someone posts content on Twitter than infringes on someones copyright or trademark – and you ReTweet this, you then also become liable for distributing such content.

Obviously there is a lot of this going on but is often too hard to police.
So why would people write: Views are my own on their social media profiles?

– Are you posting silly stuff that may get you in trouble/ raise eyebrows?

– Is your employer ‘scared’ of you social media usage?

– Did your Legal department tell you to do this?

– Is it company policy just to have a disclosure?

For example on the weekend, as I check my twitter feed at midnight on Saturday I see an Australian Government employee mentioning the word ‘Vagina’ on her social media profile – as a joke. Considering this person is using Twitter mainly as a business tool (by looking at the followers and following) is making Vagina jokes appropriate? (maybe it’s OK and I should relax a bit – but we are analysing social media here).

Now I won’t go mentioning names, but maybe on a boozy Saturday night when we press the Tweet button with little consideration – this disclose is needed after all?

For myself, I really find Twitter 90% business chat and 10% with friends. I’m all for having fun and joking around but there is a fine line to acting plain weird/ unprofessional and posting a humorous tweet. I don’t need to post risky tweets to a network that is 90% business contacts.

On Facebook – a comment like this wouldn’t get a second thought – because the audience is totally different?

Maybe I am being a little pedantic here, please note these views are my own 😀