At the start of Social Media Week, where events from London to New York and Hong Kong will focus on the latest trends, I've been reflecting with colleagues on the amazing benefits social media - and email - have brought. But we've also been thinking about the many times social media and emails have been at the root of a reputational disaster.
In nearly every case there is one good reason behind this - lack of care in communicating, or being a hurry, leading to a lack of care in communicating. Oh, and being emotional, leading to a lack of care in communicating. That's really three good reasons, but boiled down to one, it's lack of care.
I grew up in a world without social media and email (I know what you're thinking, but I'm much older than I look). If you wanted to communicate, you could either phone (and not everyone had a phone) or write a letter. You had to have an envelope and then you had to get a stamp. Plenty of time to consider your communication before posting.
In the social media world, you can get annoyed and communicate immediately with large numbers of people. Or have a few cocktails and communicate immediately with large numbers of people. Or have a great joke (that in truth is an offensive joke) and communicate with - and offend - large numbers of people.
The immediacy of social media and email is a great advantage but also a massive risk.
Who can forget poor Congressman Weiner who tweeted a highly indecent picture of himself to a young woman he had never met but forgot to type the letter "D" in the message, so the picture was seen by thousands of his startled followers. Think of the days of snail mail. You would have to take the picture, get it developed, get a print, put it in an envelope, get a stamp, mail it....plenty of time to reflect, for the excitement to wear off, and to think better of such a stupid thing for a public figure to do.
Men do stupid things, but social media and email allows the stupid things they do to be seen by lots more people.
The two employees at a Dominos Pizza franchise (one was a woman, the rare exception to the "men do stupid things" rule) who made a disgusting video at work and posted it on You Tube thought it was funny. It cost them their jobs and their company millions of dollars. They wouldn't have done it if they'd known what was going to happen. In the old days, making this prank video would have taken so long you would either have got bored or thought better of it. Now digital and social media makes it easy to do crazy things. Since the incident Dominos has led the way in recognising the need to engage your employees on the risks of social media as well as the benefits. They make great pizzas, too.
Stupid emails get people into trouble every week. Emails are not confidential. They get forwarded, sometimes maliciously. One manager was baffled when a confidential business strategy leaked out. It had apparently only been sent to 7 people in highest confidence. It had actually been forwarded to over 80.
People put extraordinarily private and personal things on email that find their way into the public domain, or in court papers under the document discovery process. The item of gossip you added as a "PS" may end up being read out in court. Best to save it for a drink after work.
None of these happened in the days of snail mail.
But before we cancel all our social media subscriptions and close our email accounts, stop! We just need to manage these risks by using a few simple rules:
(1) Never post in haste. Think about what you post.
(2) Never post when you are angry or upset.
(3) Be extremely careful about humour.
(4) Don't forget the law applies to social media. Watch out you don't defame someone, or comment on a case that is currently before the courts.
(5) Words can hurt. Could your post hurt someone, even if that's not your intention? If so re-write it.
You can sum these up in two words: take care.
A few times recently, I've been reminded that email is a crude form of communication. It's written quickly and easy to misunderstand. Use email to communicate factual points but never feelings. It's often better to call someone on the phone. And write every email or social media post thinking the whole world might see it. Because they might.
If you do post something you regret, follow it up as soon as you can with another post. Something like: "That last post came out wrong. I'm sorry about it. It might have offended people and I didn't mean to" is disarming and honest and in practice, unless your post is unlawful and grossly offensive, is likely to be accepted by users who've all done the same thing themselves at least once.
With all these precautions in mind and armed with our new iPhone5s, we're off to Social Media Week to hear about the positive power of social media. I can't wait.
