Every week I am amazed at the plain stupidity of intelligent people. I can understand my 20 year old neighbor posting pictures and inappropriate resets but these are Ivy League graduates that have worked their whole life to get where they are. This isn't about whether social media should be allowed, disallowed, etc. Rather this is a study on the pysche of individuals that believe they are so high above the rules that they will not be caught. Tiger Woods has been trained for three decades on marketing, behavior, and ways to present himself. But thinking because you are worth billions and on top of your world does not make everyone else disappear. We all have the right to speak, show, and act the way we want...it comes down to whether you are willing to accept the outcomes, or even believe there will be any.
Dodging
AskAsa
6/7/2011 11:55:46 AM
More than 50 years ago Ed Murrow sat between two live TV monitors pointed at the pacific and the atlantic oceans and noted for the first time man could see two shores at the same time. Pray we use and dont abuse this power.
Fast forward to today where anyone can sit between a laptop and a blackberry and instantly send the most bizarre,grotesque, fantastic, outlandish and yes valuable ideas to 10 million people. I pray we use it and don't abuse it.
Re: Two types of problems with Tweets
jwillnyc
6/7/2011 8:25:20 AM
I can relate and sympathize with your story, we all can account situations in which our "True" opinions/views were exposed without our consent/desire. If these recent twitter and social media mishaps have taught us anything, it is the re-affirmation of an age old saying "truth is the best policy". I for one welcome the "forced" transparency that's been born of the explosion of social media, it has created an invisible ethical check for modern communication.
Re: speed of information
Phoenix
6/7/2011 2:15:56 AM
Yes the vast amount of information available makes it easier to forget the last and go on to the next as we are not able remember everything that we hear all the time. That being said even though the general public may forget the shareholders or the people who are immediately affected by the situation are unlikely to forget and react as such. And this may cause a lot of damage to the company or individual concerned.
However, I still believe that the availability of more information makes it easier for us to make a good judgment on the best brands the best companies or even the best politicians. It gives us a good insight into data that would have not been available to us just a decade ago, enabling us to make better decisions.
Once I made of mistake of hitting 'reply' instead of forward on an email. The reply went to our CEO and I sent it at the very end of a long day. In my 'reply' I had some frank information about one of our corporate policies and how we weren't doing so well at implementing it.
It was very tense the next morning as two of our executives were there to greet me when I arrived at work. And they had a whole lot of questions for me.
But after all the questioning, it was treated as the honest mistake that it was. This was because they knew me and I was able to show and explain what the email was trying to accomplish - if I'd just sent it correclty...
Everyone makes mistakes and some of the gaffes are just that. When President Obama said he had visited "57 states" this was just a normal speaking mistake that anyone who speaks as much as politicians do will make. These should be forgiven quickly and anyone who thinks "Oh, look, he doesn't know how many states there are!!" is being silly at best.
The Weinergate tweet seems to be of the second and more serious variety which reflects poor charactor or judgement. Particularly when his first response is to lie about what happened.
Chaos
Re: Dodging the damage from talk and tweets
TelecomFreq
6/6/2011 10:54:44 PM
ProfR, I sort of agree with you, and sort of do not agree with you. for company buisness i could not agree more, but as long as emploees are not leeking information or using the company logo on their social media then i think the company should be hands off.They should have a clear policy on use of soical media with regards to company info or logos (any many companies do).
That being said, people can take measures to ensure that their co-workers do not have access to all of the content on their social media pages. I know i use lists on facebook to limit who can see all of my info, my twitter is open to all and i am far more careful with regards to what i post their.
Dodging the damage from talk and tweets
ProfR
6/6/2011 5:25:19 PM
It is interesting that most companies have rules around what costs an employee can expense, what hours people should work, etc. but none around what an employee can put in an email, tweet or Facebook page. There have been lawsuits where senior managers put things in email that were totally inappropriate. I think companies need to be more prudent here.
Good and Bad
tokyogai
6/6/2011 4:03:37 PM
In some ways instant news is a good thing. Problems do not get swept under the rug and we are forced to confront and manage things that may have lingered in the past. In some ways it is like owning a gun- it can be used for good or bad. People trying to do harm have a new and very effective media. I don't know what the best answer is, but I think having too much information is better in the long run than too little.
Though social media can be used to communicate and to help someone build their brand, a single slip up can go viral and destroy a brand or a company. I think the flip side of this coin is that these slip-ups are more quickly forgot. In our world of constant bit stream of info and news it is very easy for the public to move onto the next topic of the moment.
In the case of a company, i think a mistake that goes viral would be more quickly forgoten but the hit to their stock might take just as long to recover. just because the general public forgets dosnt mean the markets are willing to forgive.
Funny but so true
Tenacious
6/6/2011 2:22:45 PM
This makes me laugh and shake my head at the same time. To what extent are our institutions and our businesses guided by stupidity?
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