Why you shouldn’t announce your move on social media?

We share a lot of information on social media, everything from our kids cute pictures to what we ate for lunch. But, whatever you do, don’t announce your move on social media. If you do, it could end up costing you.


The risk of burglary and vandalism
Even if you have the privacy settings of your social media profiles turned on, social media isn’t exactly private. It is easy for anyone to see your status updates. You never know who will find out about your move…including people with malicious intentions.


Whenever you announce that your home will be empty for a period of time, then it opens up the door to burglary. So what, you say, you have moved out so they can’t steal your things? If you are moving out of a rental, you might be held liable for the burglary. The same applies if vandals (or kids wanting to use the empty house for a party) trash the old home.


When moving for work
If you are moving for work, you may have other reasons not to announce your move on social media. In some cases, it could count as a breach of your non-compete or non-solicit contract.


For example, let’s say that you have a non-solicit contract with your current employer. You decide to leave the company for another job. You post this on social media. Well, it turns out that you are followed by many of the clients from the job you are leaving. One of your former clients sees your status update and decides to follow you to the new company. It could be said that you solicited the client, which is a breach of contract.


There have actually been several legal cases for breach of contract due to social media status updates (particularly involving LinkedIn). Yes, it seems completely moral to update social media with information about your move and new job, but it could come back to haunt you. As of yet, all of these legal cases (which I am aware of) have been decided in favor of the former employee: the judges have said that a more direct form of solicitation must be shown to prove breach of contract. But it is still not something anyone wants to deal with, so proceed with caution.