Self-regulate. Self-moderate. Are terms that are cropping up more and more in my vocabulary. It’s advice to clients. It’s advice to peers (who ask for it) It’s mostly advice to myself.

My personal approach on Social media is that I don’t comment on client related content or promotion unless I disclose that its client work. The reason, because I don’t and won’t suggest or promote something to my followers or friends unless I legitimately want to support it. And if its client work then I feel that they/you should know that.

Last year I got into trouble for doing just that. And its because it appeared that we were the only agency producing the work. So I removed the tweet and all was well. But it meant that I couldn’t even do that.

Then today standing in the queue at the bank, I noticed, again, the remarkable misrepresentation of “the world” about to descend on South Africa for the world cup in their murals. Even the teller confirmed that he thought it was all very white. Very odd. I took a photo. I was a moment away from criticising the creative, and then a little voice cautioned me against it. Why? Because its your client. And I don’t want it to seem that I’m criticising your client’s work, when I work on a banking client too. Which means I can’t talk about my banking client either. And the other major bank out there, I don’t think knows how to spell Twitter, so there is no point complaining about them anyway.

On that. Nobody likes a complainer. I learnt a long time ago, that as much as I sometimes want to be honest, that its best to keep upbeat in this medium. I unfollow people who complain too much. No matter how ‘influential’ people are meant to be. I hide people’s comments in facebook when they are too depressing or emo. My most used word in my tweets last year was ‘love’, and I like that. I’m sure that I get unfollowed, often, for my ‘purges’ which usually occur whilst I am waiting. Waiting for the menu. Waiting for my order. Waiting in the queue. Waiting for a video to load. Waiting for the kettle to boil. “Tweet while you wait.” (Hmm would make for a nice service campaign for a retailer, ‘tweet if you have waited in this queue for longer than 5 mins’) But I try not to complain. Which means that I’m not objective or honest in my complaints about issues that aggravate me as a consumer. And that’s largely because they are probably your client. Or mine.

Latest Twitter Stats in SA, argued and agreed upon by the top dogs sits at 88 000 users. I’d like to know what the average number of followers is for each of the 88 000. I hazard a guess that the majority of Twitterati with the largest number of followers and arguable influence are in actual fact in ‘The Industry’, particularly in SA. Which means that they can’t be objective I even wonder about Radio DJ’s with a large reach. What of their sponsors – how objective are they, really? How dare they, we, criticise or comment on a brand? Heaven help if you are up for pitch and client sees your thoughts. Eeek. Or maybe you’re just gutsy enough not to care?!

Where is the line between being a regular opinionated consumer and protecting your business interests? Mine, after testing all routes and as I become more engrained in brand work, is to self-regulate, self-moderate when I want to complain. And provide positive commentary where and when deserved.