Many of us have a private and public persona.
Most of us also have a personal and professional image.
I used to very naively view matters in a clear black and white divide. Then, life reminded me of grey areas. Age and experiences taught me how to navigate grey areas.
There is something that's quite food for thought on the pros and cons of using social media as a professional platform.
I give you the case of a seemingly complex twitter saga in January 2009. Ketchum (James Andrew's Twitter) versus FedEx.
In a nutshell, let me sum up. Ketchum's PR rep lands in Memphis to make a presentation about utilizing 'social media' to its biggest client- FedEx, its corporate communications department.
In his personal capacity, PR rep twittered:
"True confession but I’m in one of those towns where I scratch my head and say, ‘I would die if I had to live here."
Somehow, someone in FedEx picked it up, jumped, interpreted and made his own conclusions. He saw it fit to reply publicly:
"Mr. Andrews, If I interpret your post correctly, these are your comments about Memphis a few hours after arriving in the global headquarters city of one of your key and lucrative clients, and the home of arguably one of the most important entrepreneurs in the history of business, FedEx founder Fred Smith.
Many of my peers and I feel this is inappropriate. We do not know the total millions of dollars FedEx Corporation pays Ketchum annually for the valuable and important work your company does for us around the globe. We are confident however, it is enough to expect a greater level of respect and awareness from someone in your position as a vice president at a major global player in your industry. A hazard of social networking is people will read what you write.
Not knowing exactly what prompted your comments, I will admit the area around our airport is a bit of an eyesore, not without crime, prostitution, commercial decay, and a few potholes. But there is a major political, community, religious, and business effort underway, that includes FedEx, to transform that area.
We’re hopeful that over time, our city will have a better “face” to present to visitors. James, everyone participating in today’s event, including those in the auditorium with you this morning, just received their first paycheck of 2009 containing a 5% pay cut … which we wholeheartedly support because it continued the tradition established by Mr. Smith of doing whatever it takes to protect jobs.
Considering that we just entered the second year of a U.S. recession, and we are experiencing significant business loss due to the global economic downturn, many of my peers and I question the expense of paying Ketchum to produce the video open for today’s event; work that could have been achieved by internal, award-winning professionals with decades of experience in television production.
Additionally Mr. Andrews, with all due respect, to continue the context of your post; true confession: many of my peers and I don’t see much relevance between your presentation this morning and the work we do in Employee Communications."
Is it a storm in a teacup? Well, the saga continues here at David Henderson.
James Andrews has given his side of the story on his blog. And woah, even Mrs Andrews has jumped into the fray. (Woman! Let your husband fight his own battles!)
Anyway, my take is...what happened to something called 'crisis communications'?! It's barely existent in this saga.
Importantly, what does that tell us?
What are your facebook and Twitter accounts saying about you, really?
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2 comments:
wow, this is terrifically interesting. I think it's a great case study on social media, and the line (if there are any) between personal and private capacities. I think there is alot of grey, but interesting new shades of grey :)
Sometimes the blurred lines even results in mutual reinforcement. For instance, a public officer who is also a respected blogger online (someone like Daryl Sng, for instance) would be presumably taken more seriously if he engages in reasoned and objective discourse about public policy. ESPECIALLY when he criticises public policy. But now, he just lives under a blanket gag.
also to add - the fact that this is being watched so closely online and people are doing their own investigative journalism, and that FedEx is willing to reply and open up to the outside world on this... that's just a whole new fascinating area for discussion.
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