Recently, I’ve been noticing more and more that small businesses and groups are “asking” their employees to change their cover or profile photos to the brand of the organization they work for. And, while some managers understand that this is a fine line, others have pushed their teams to help promote the group’s brand.

You know how that happens, right?

First, the team manager gives a request that goes something like this: “Hey, wouldn’t it be great if we helped promote our business and we all changed our cover photos to branding? We happen to have some works of art we created and it would be great if each of you would go ahead and upload it to your social media accounts. It’s a team effort! You don’t have to, but…”

And then you have the first person on the team who goes ahead and changes their profile picture or cover, and the next thing you hear, the manager makes a clear point to acknowledge that team member. I’ve even seen some situations where managers have repeatedly asked, always qualifying it as “not required,” to see if a team member who hasn’t changed their private social media settings intends to do so. You know, not-so-subtle pressure.

This is my suggestion to you if you are a team leader or manager and would like to have some team spirit for the team.

• Ask once and once only and provide the artwork, if any team member ever wants to help your group spread the word.
• However, you can do what I do and not ask anything. Period.

Honestly, my marketing team has said to me, “Wayne, let’s ask the team to promote one of our social businesses or companies on social media!”

I’ve never been enthusiastic about the idea, and I’m not sure I ever will.

I think we should have a separation between work and personal, as much as we can. I know some people think it’s “old school” but the reality is that as a leader I understand that if my team has a personal life and the business world doesn’t invade them all the time, they will be happier and productivity will be higher.

There are also some practical and legal reasons not to ask your team to promote your business or group on social media. It’s particularly true when managers question them with the “subtle” pressures that can sometimes occur when they want their team members to support the organization.

• Employers have the right to ask their employees not to be on their personal social media accounts during work hours. That’s a legitimate request for employees (but not for contract workers, freelancers, or consultants who aren’t salaried staff).
• Can you demand, however subtly, that your employees support your organization? The short answer is no. don’t Social media accounts are the personal and private property of the owners, in this case, each of their employees. So, just like you can’t require them to give you the keys to their houses, you can’t ask (ie “expect”) them to promote the business on their accounts.

But what if you want to at least make it an option for your team to promote your company or group on their social media accounts if they choose? Yes, you can make your social media art and images available to them, let them know it’s a resource for them if they ever wanted to use it on their accounts, but that’s about it. In some cases, you or your employees may be putting yourself or your employees at legal risk because promoting your business on your social media accounts for commercial gain may violate the social media terms.

The bottom line in the age of social media is that if you want to build team spirit or have an amazing product launch and you want your team involved, you can provide the resources. But you can’t force or pressure them, or do anything more than allow each person to do what they would like to do, in any case, on their personal social media accounts.