Social media is not an alien entity that’s lurking out in the universe, lying in wait to bite your head off. It is an invaluable tool mass communications tool, that like any other form of media, requires those of us using it to be on-goingly aware of our audience.
Adjectives describing social media like “caution, beware, traitorous” are over used. Worse, they instill a feeling of fear, and don’t serve to advance anyone in the in the legal marketing world.
Ketchum advertising is feeling the wrath of one of its executive’s lack of empathy, and has yet to approach the problem with transparency, and integrity. All of which would be extraordinarily effective for clean-up. Law firms, pay close attention to mishaps such as this. Big agencies, in general, are new to many of the evolving online communications tools, like social media, and can be detrimental.
David Henderson broke the story:
In brief: PR account executive/vice president James Andrews, from Ketchum in Atlanta, flew to Memphis to visit one of the agency’s largest clients, FedEx. Ironically, Andrews’ visit designed to — now, this is important —
talk with the corporate communications people at FedEx about social media.
Once Andrews landed, he posted this message, Twitter.
“True confession but I’m in one of those towns where I scratch my head and say, ‘I would die if I had to live here.’”
Andrews openly used his Twitter monicker – @keyinfluencer.
Someone inside FedEx was following Andrews, and that person shared the post among the top executives at the FedEx front office, and the company’s corporate communications staff. At that point, a person in the FedEx corporate communications staff apparently took umbrage to the post by Andrews and responded with
a personal message to Mr. “KeyInfluencer.
Henderson, a communications strategist and Emmy Award winning former CBS News correspondent was amazed by the response his story received with over 118,000 hits that temporarily shut-down his server. “It demonstrates, I believe, the enormous power of Twitter and social media. As Lyelle Petersen (@93octane) commented on Henderson’s blog, “a perfect example of how dangerous social media can be if not taken seriously.”
I’m not one for making excuses. But, the value in all of this lies in the full picture. We are all human beings and will occasionally say things that are not appropriate. Looking at the comments on James’ blog,
The Key Influencer , and several of his videos on
YouTube, James occurs to me as a, brilliant, dedicated professional, who’s a good guy, who “made a mistake”.
Giving him the benefit-of-a-doubt, it appears that the curtness of his response to David Henderson on Twitter, not aided by the 140-character limit, was not representative of his true character. A telephone call would have been much more appropriate and professional. James knows it and David certainly knows that he knows, which is why David’s so annoyed.
Additionally, James’, half-blame comments occur as somewhat pompous, “If I offended the residents of Memphis, TN I’m sorry. That was not my intention. I understand that people have tremendous pride in their hometown. They don’t make the grade or adequately represent you. In other words, a slice of humble pie may not be a bad thing.
If it’s within Ketchum’s protocol, invite you to fully accept responsibility, clean this up from the heart, and call David !
Tags: Kara Smith, Karasma Media, Legal Marketing Tips
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