By Fraser P. Seitel
If you think Japan is the only radioactive place on the planet, try tweeting.
Twitter, the five-year-old, 150-million user, social networking service with the prodigious following and the dubious profit potential, is rapidly becoming the quickest way to annihilate your reputation and lose your job, in one, 140-character swoop.
Latest to fall victim to “execution by tweet” was Cappie Pondexter, a Rutgers graduate and shooting guard for the New York Liberty of the Women’s National Basketball Association.
Ms. Pondexter, for a reason known only to her, saw the carnage in Japan and tweeted, “What if God was tired of the way they treated their own people in there own country! Idk guys he makes no mistakes.”
A day later, after somebody evidently suggested a Henry Kissinger she was not, Ms. Pondexter tweeted, “I wanna apologize to anyone I may hurt or offended…..the least thing I wanted was to hurt or offend.”
In an instant, because of her nitwit tweet, Ms. Pondexter’s reputation was toasted, not to mention the reputation of Rutgers, which saw fit to award a degree to an apparent illiterate.
Ms. Pondexter’s learned international tweet-mentary, of course, followed a similarly thoughtful tweatise on Japan from erstwhile Aflac spokesman Gilbert Gottfried and another tweet by a Chrysler social media PR consultant that questioned, in most spicy language, the driving competence of Detroiters.
As a result of said tweets, Ms. Pondexter lost her reputation, Mr. Gottfried his Aflac gig, and the PR consultant his job.
And that’s the point.
While Twitter might be great for rallying the populace and bringing down dictators, it can positively destroy you.
Indeed, the reputational risk/reward ratio of tweeting for any individual interested in earning a living – including celebrities and sports stars and CEOs -- is questionable. While a persuasive tweet might marginally assist a marketing effort, an errant tweet can ruin a reputation.
The indisputable fact is that just because you are a Hollywood celebrity or a professional athlete or even the top executive in a major corporation doesn’t mean you’re all that bright or attuned to public sensibilities. And unless you’re Charlie Sheen, 50 Cent or some equivalent multi-millionaire sociopath, you need to think twice before tweeting.
And “thinking twice” in terms of Twitter translates to the following:
Have a reason to tweet.
The top tweeters, based on followers are: Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Britney Spears.
The latter is selling a comeback record album, the middle one is selling a documentary film, and the former is selling anything she can get her hands on – music, apparel, electronic equipment, you name it. (In fact, if you want to learn something about modern merchandising, look no further than the brazen bombshell.)
The point is that these people are all “selling” something; they have a reason to tweet.
They’re not doing it on a whim, e.g. defaming Detroit drivers or bashing the Japanese.
Tweet as part of a larger plan.
Twitter absolutely should be an element in a marketing/public relations plan.
Smart companies, like Starbucks coffee or Southwest airlines or Zappos shoes, use Twitter, along with Facebook and other traditional and social media tools, to boost their brands and sell their products.
Similarly, smart celebrities, like Oprah and Shaq and Madonna (and even two-named celebs) use Twitter as part of a larger strategic plan to boost their causes and themselves.
With just 140 characters, Twitter is best used as an “enticer,” a “grabber,” a “catalyst,” not as a marketing or public relations end in and of itself.
Use Twitter to break news.
For big celebrities, Twitter as “news breaker” has become its most potent use.
When Sarah Palin wants to jump into the Arizona gun debate or Lindsay Lohan wants to “apologize” in advance of a court hearing or Lady Gaga wants to insert herself into the gays-in-the-military debate – they do it on Twitter.
Their PR people then issue releases pointing reporters to the tweet, and bingo, “instant news.”
This, of course, is an admittedly calculated use of this seemingly “scriptless” medium, just as a news release or a speech or a media advisory is used to stimulate coverage.
Which leads to this final suggestion:
Seek help before tweeting.
Of course, this is heresy to every red-blooded social media supporter of spontaneity. To the zealots, “falsifying” tweets is the most egregious violation of Twitterquette. A Twitter “conversation,” they say, should be just that – real, unedited, and unscripted by a paid advisor. Anything less, they argue, destroys credibility.
Oh you poor misguided saps.
Not even Biz Stone (look him up!) is naive enough to think that Bill Gates or Al Gore or Martha Stewart or Shakira or Oprah – Oprah, for goddsakes! – actually have time to author all their own tweets.
Public relations people get paid for advising clients on the strategy and implementation of their communications weaponry – from releases and speeches to memos and presentations. Part of that 21st century arsenal are blogs and podcasts, Facebook postings and tweets. And they, too, should be influenced by counselors expert in the fine art of strategic communication.
Here’s why:
- Designer Kenneth Cole was ostracized after tweeting that his new spring collection was inspired by the unrest in the Middle East.
- New York University deep-sixed a well-known research Fellow after his insensitive (some would say, “insane”) tweet bad-mouthing a CBS broadcaster sexually assaulted in Cairo.
- The Indiana Attorney General was sacked for tweeting that the Wisconsin police should use live ammo to fight union protestors.
- And then, of course, there were Gilbert and Chrysler and Cappie.
All would have benefited from wise public relations counsel – not to mention, robust editing -- before tweeting their reputations away.
Sorry Twitter nation.
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