Week 6: The Tweet Heard Around the
World: When Personal Social Media Accounts Effect Business
Each day millions of users of
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other social media sites, whose use has become
as commonplace as drinking a cup of coffee, post various thoughts, jokes, and
personal images for family, friends and,
intentionally or not, the world to see. This ability to easily share these personal
narratives is one of the driving forces behinds social medias acceptance into
our daily lives but exposes the organizations that employee these users to the negative
and potentially image damaging public relations nightmares that follow with one
poor comment, inappropriate picture or insensitive tweet. In today’s world businesses
need to be not only aware of the social media conversation about the business itself
but the employees themselves. One example of this dynamic is from December 2013
when Justine Sacco, the Corporate Communications Director for InterActiv Corp
(IAC), sent a tweet that rocked social media to its core.
10 on the Social Media Richter Scale….
To better set the stage some background
of IAC is important. IAC is one of the largest proprietors of internet sites
which consist of such familiar sites as Match.com, Vimeo, and The Daily Beast
with its entire family of websites totaling over two billion monthly visits and
reaching users in more than 200 countries (IMC, 2015). S
During
that fateful December 2013 day the aforementioned Justine Sacco was engaged in social
media platforms by posting various commentaries during her travels to Africa.
One of her tweets on Twitter read “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just
kidding. I’m white!” (Ronson, 2015).
This insensitive and outlandish tweet became viral and elicited a tidal wave of
backlash from various public from around the world.
Surprising right, who would
figure that such a larger purveyor of such popular websites and well versed in
the use of the internet for networking could be exposed to a social media gaff
that would take the world by storm especially from one of its Directors of
Communications? But it did and IAC moved swiftly to distance itself from Sacco.
IAC released various statements of its own through the corporation’s social media
platforms such as “This is an outrageous, offensive comment. Employee in
question currently unreachable on an intl flight.” (Ronson, 2015) and “The offensive comment does
not reflect the views and values of IAC. We take this issue very seriously, and
we have parted ways with the employee in question.” (Stelter, 2013). These
statements made it clear that IAC did not support Sacco’s comments and that
they were done in a personal context with no association with or direction from
the business.
Picking Up the Pieces….
Sacco was ultimately removed from
her position and for more than a year still outcast by various media regarding
the comment. IMC also took some backlash related to the fact that one of their
directors of communication could be so oblivious to common social media protocols
and norms (Ronson, 2015).
The reaction of IMC to condemn and distance
itself from Sacco’s comments was an appropriate one not only for the
preservation of the organizations image but by the core decencies in which
society should operate. An improvement that IMC could have made in response to
this crisis could be to be more transparent and active in its communications on
how they were working with their employees to better understand global social environments
though activities such as awareness and sensitivity training. IMC needed to demonstrate
that this was not a systemic corporate culture and it was a leading steward in supporting
change to various societal challenges not being self-absorbed and blind to the
outside world.
Guiding the Narrative…
Scott (2013) tends to speak to policy
recommendations that focus on communications that surround the business such as
speaking badly of the competition and revealing company secretes. These are well and good but most employees don’t
communicate on social media under a corporate banner, it is through their personal
sites. A comprehensive social media policy should speak to an employee’s
personal social media activities and how through any association with an organization,
i.e. though even a simple listing of current employer, they are a representative
of that organization whether on personal sites or not. Developing an
understanding of ethical, respectful and responsible communication along with comprehensive
training though such examples as the one covered here can go a long way to
protecting not only the organization but the employee as well.
Social media is a powerful tool and
gives its users the opportunity to influence the world but it can also be a vehicle
for harmful communications. Maybe sometimes we need to stop and think, would I say this out loud in a crowded NYC
subway, maybe that would provide just enough introspective pause to avoid social
media disasters that don’t define a company’s or person’s true nature.
Do you think companies are responsible
to train their employees about social media ethics their potential influence on
social dynamics outside the scope of business associations? Let’s hear your
thoughts!
IAC. (2015). IAC.com/ about. Retrieved on February 24 2015
from http://iac.com/about/overview
Ronson, J. (February 12, 2015). How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up
Justine Sacco’s Life. New York Times Magazine Online. Retrieved on February 24
2015 from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/magazine/how-one-stupid-tweet-ruined-justine-saccos-life.html?_r=1#
Scott, D. (2013). The new rules of marketing &
PR: How to use social media, online
video, mobile applications, blogs, news releases, & viral marketing to reach buyers
directly (3rd ed.). Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons
video, mobile applications, blogs, news releases, & viral marketing to reach buyers
directly (3rd ed.). Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons
Stelter, B. (December 21, 2013). Company parts ways
with PR exec after AIDS in Africa tweet. Retrieved on February 24, 2015 from http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/21/us/sacco-offensive-tweet/
7 comments:
Hi Shawn – Awesome post! I actually remember reading about this tweet and thinking, “What a horrific lapse in judgment!” The interesting part about this situation is the immediate backlash from Sacco’s Twitter post occurred as she was flying to Africa. Unless Sacco had wireless on the flight, she didn’t know her Twitter profile and her career were both blowing up at 30,000 feet in the air. Using your example, it’s shocking that Director of Communications Sacco would use her personal handle to post something so insensitive. She should have understood at least the basic cautionary protocols of using social media, don’t you think?
I agree with you that IAC was right to immediately release a statement via social media. You also mentioned IAC could have been more transparent and active in how it was working with employees to both understand social media and hold sensitivity trainings. This is in line with that we learned this week about the importance of having a social media corporate policy. Scott suggests to guide the way people behave with social media guidelines, instead of draconian command-and-control measures (Scott, 2012, pg. 92). Considering Scott's position and the ideas you've already mentioned, if you were head of social media at IAC, how would you implement these new training elements with employees? What steps would you take to provide transparency and communicate these new initiatives with customers via social media?
References
Scott, D. M. (2013). The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to use social media, online video, mobile applications, blogs, news releases, & viral marketing to reach buyers directly. (4 ed.). Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Mary,
I agree, one would think that with all of the training she must have had has a communications professional she would have known better. But this just shows how people think they are insulated in their personal life from their professional one. With social media and the accesses that people allow to their life, job, relationship status, personal issues it all become tied and fair game for anyone to criticize.
To your questions regarding any new social media trainings,, I think that incorporating them into the cooperate culture such as through general business ethics trainings would be appropriate. Corporations can review these trainings by holding all employee meetings and for employees that specific customer engagement positions smaller group trainings could be held.
Having transparency in a corporations ethical communications can be done through the vary platforms in which they are active. Using produced videos, written statements or live interviews showcasing management’s position on ethical communication and the companies polices on responsible social media would set a foundation for future activities by the corporation or its employees to follow.
Great ideas, Shawn. I think you make a great connection between business ethics and social media. It's up to the company to instill these principles in their employees, and I think it's a challenge for companies to draft guidelines on personal media use while complying with the National Labor Relations Act. Do you think Sacco's tweet had any long-term repercussions on IAC?
Mary,
I think the only long term effects would have been on the policies of IAC. I don’t think that the social media negative sentiment extended to the brand much beyond the initial responses but I think that is partly due to the fact the corporate brand may not have been as well-known as other commercial brands. This fact may have really helped the company move past the incident. The corporate culture in regards to social media needed to change, keep up with the times and that may have been the best thing that came out of all the mess.
Hi Shawn - Great point. Unfortunately, sometimes it takes a crisis to drive significant change to corporate policies and procedures. You're right that IAC may not have taken as much heat as a more well-known company would have in the same situation. Final question: How would you apply your ideas to your current company's social media policy and/or social media crisis plan? Would you make any changes or additions?
Hi Sean – well done! I don’t know how anyone in their right mind could’ve made a comment like Sacco did. I think your analysis of IAC’s actions and recommendations are spot on. In regards to your question on whether or not companies are responsible for training employees about social media ethics outside of their scope of business, I believe the answer is yes. I think it should depend on the job, but anyone using social media for the company, i.e. maintaining a blog or Facebook should absolutely have to take a mandatory course. I also think that anyone using a personal social media platform above a certain job grade within the company, i.e. CEO, should also have to fulfill the training requirements. Would you agree or do you feel otherwise?
Andrew,
I agree. Social media ethics and training should be ingrained in training programs for all levels just like topic as sexual harassment are. Not one member of an execution should be excluded and crisis management simulations should be run to prepare a business in case the situation arises.
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