Internet Damage Control Gone Wrong
Posted above is a recent article from Cracked.com regarding company and other individuals attempts at doing damage control regarding social media and other various internet outlets. Unfortunately/fortunately, the company and individuals involved fail miserably.
This article, through its humorous approach shows just how much power one individual can wield over a company through using social media as an outlet. I'm sure everyone has heard of someone being fired due to posts regarding their facebook/twitter accounts. Though people will argue that the lines between "Freedom of Speech" and censorship from their corporate life is becoming blurred, that is just a trend that will continue as technology continuously evolves as it has within the past 5-10 years. If you are going to use a social media outlet then you have to be ready for the repercussions of what may happen in the future when others look upon your online personality.
Just think for a second when was the last time you went a day without looking at your cell phone to see if you have a missed call, text, facebook message, etc. If your like me, then its only happened once in a blue moon and the main reason it probably happened was because you forgot your phone at your house and had no option but be thrust back into medieval times and use....phones....with...chords or possibly even smoke signals, though I hope for your benefit the latter option is not true.
Anyways, this is the first of what I'm sure will a semester full of rambling thoughts, some incoherent, others maybe bits of wisdom.
Those are excellent examples, Scott! They do showcase the power of social media - and are good lessons for companies trying to deal with negative posts. So, what do you think would be a good course of action for some of these companies?
ReplyDeleteI believe that some companies, such as the ones mentioned, act before thinking of the long term consequences. The best example to me of the five, was of the girl who was fired for complaining how boring her job was on Facebook. Because of the company firing her and her retaliating by going on a an online campaign, the company suffered through how much revenue was lost due to their company now being linked to that one incident.
ReplyDeleteUnlike years ago, companies will now how to really do a cost benefit analysis when they consider letting someone go due to social media posts. They will seriously have to look at what can happen if the person does decide to retaliate like the teenager did and whether letting someone go is worth it due to the public backlash. I'm sure some companies already have adapted policies that are explicit on what an employee may or may not say online, but in the future it will have to be more thoroughly discussed during the hiring process so no lines are blurred.
Another thing that will probably come about due to the social media age, is companies offering seminars and other learning material to their employees regarding web etiquette as many people seriously do not know that by saying certain things it can be considered "wrong"