One of the social media sins I will never commit is over-publicizing political commentary. Now that the election is over, I am relieved that Facebook and Twitter will no longer be a battleground of Romney versus Obama. That being said, I was extremely careful this election when it came to social media. I carefully followed all of the news and considered myself a quiet observer. The Gossip Genie team did the same and I was really proud of our posts this week. If you haven’t had a chance to read Anthony’s blog post on Hootsuite’s 2012 Election Tracker, Elizabeth’s Social Media Update on #ElectionDay post or Laurel’s post entitled Tweeting for the Record, I would urge you to do so. Each one offers a great perspective on the important role social media played during the election.

I always encourage my team to publicize their posts for the world to see because the fabulous writing represents us well. Laurel posted her Tweeting for the Record post on our Gossip Genie Linkedin Page.

From there, I liked the post on Linkedin and that activity showed up on my Linkedin feed for my connections to see. Keep in mind, the post has absolutely no reference to any political affiliation.

Minutes later I receive a Linkedin message from someone who clearly has way too much time on his hands.

I was shocked by the message and surely thought this person had accidentally contacted the wrong person. I responded by saying, “I think you have the wrong person” and figured I would soon get an apology. Instead he responded with, “How so?” to which I responded, “I haven’t been posting any political commentary.” I had to screenshot the rest of the convo because it’s hard to believe anyone would respond like this…

Never in my life have I encountered someone that is trying to control the message as much as this person. If you don’t like what I have to say or the way my digital footprint is publicized, disconnect, defriend, unlike, unfollow but please, don’t try to change my digital style because that’s not going to happen.