Your Tweets Are Not Your Own

The New York Times this week issued a "Social Media Guidelines" memo to employees, presumably to stop outsiders from pointing to mundane tweets or Facebook posts that might indicate a general political bias on the office of NYT staff. It's something all publications, public relations agencies, and corporations big and pocket-sized should read and implement.

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How oft do nosotros hear well-nigh some devil-may-care tweet that resulted in a public embarrassment for the company or person involved? Far too often.

A CBS lawyer, for case, was fired recently for posting on Facebook that she had no sympathy for victims of the Las Vegas shootings, because "country music fans are ofttimes republican gun-toters." And who tin can forget the #HasJustineLandedYet fiasco of 2022?

PR professionals should know better, and the expert ones probably practise. Just a viral or inappropriate social post from 1 employee tin can tarnish the reputation of an entire agency or company. You lot have to wonder if these people even understand public relations; they definitely practise not understand the idiosyncrasies of social media.

A meager social media following does piddling to shield the devil-may-care tweeter from a firestorm. The aforementioned Justine had only 170 followers before firing off an sick-advised tweet nearly Africa and AIDS equally she got on a flight. Merely thousands of re-tweets and a Gawker mail service afterwards, Justine got a nasty surprise every bit she touched down.

The NYT should be commended for its memo and the discussion around it. While it volition not end detest-tweeting and insensitive comments by the general public, trolls, and those with nothing to lose, information technology might ready a standard for everyone else, which is sorely needed.

About John C. Dvorak

John C. Dvorak

John C. Dvorak is a columnist for PCMag.com and the co-host of the twice weekly podcast, the No Agenda Prove. His piece of work is licensed around the earth. Previously a columnist for Forbes, PC/Calculating, Computer Shopper, MacUser, Barrons, the Dec Professional as well every bit other newspapers and magazines. Former editor and consulting editor for InfoWorld, he besides appeared in the New York Times, LA Times, Philadelphia Enquirer, SF Examiner, and the Vancouver Sun. He was on the showtime-upwardly team for C/Net as well as ZDTV. At ZDTV (and TechTV) he hosted Silicon Spin for four years doing 1000 alive and live-to-tape Television receiver shows. His Cyberspace testify Cranky Geeks was considered a …