How seriously do you take social media? Would you be offended by this?
http://shankman.com/be-careful-what-you-post/
Do you think people should avoid speaking their mind in situations like this? If someone insulted the city you are from would you fire them?
Do you think your answer will be the same in 5 years as it is today? In other words do you think that people will relax their attitudes towards offensive tweets in the same way that more leeway is given to athletes and politicians that say dumb things (it's big in the news for a day or two and then everyone forgets about it)?
Interesting thoughts or enlightening personal experiences on either end will get the tip!
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M$4 Answers
People can speak their minds however and whenever they want. They can make complete a***s of themselves while representing their company. However they need to take the spanking when given. They also need to face the music when their rants, pictures, acts, etc. are found.
Will attitudes relax in the future??? Who knows. I know I don't pay any attention to facebook, myspace], tweet (twit), or the like. But I also know when I'm interviewing or considering hiring a contractor, I them.
Does it affect my decision? Yes! Will it in the future? Yes!
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M$It reveals a lack of judgement, that as his employer I would be concerened about. If this is the first lapse of judgement, I wouldn't fire him, as he's learned a very public and painful lesson. If Fed Ex requested that he be taken off the account, though, I would take him off it in an instant.
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M$
I know that twitter is technically accessible to the public, but where do you draw the line?
What if he was at a restaurant in Memphis with his wife and made a comment to her that was overheard by a local who happened to be an employee?
Don't think that I am implying that anyone has any sense of privacy on twitter or any other service, I am just questioning whether it is appropriate for one's boss to mix comments made online with the quality of someone's work.
What if you made fun of a city in a yearbook quote that is now printed for posterity? Should that be held against you as well?
For me the distinction is made by the expectation of privacy associated with the environment. When you're at dinner with a spouse, and a stranger listens in on a private conversation--that's different. However, there should be no expectation of privacy in an online public forum, so--in my opinion--his comments showed poor judgment.
And I definitely give the youthful indiscretions printed in a high school yearbook a pass--but if they comments were racist, or otherwise really egregious, they would probably still give me pause.
If this Twitterer was a broadcaster (think Don Imus), would your answer about being offended by it be different?
Even though you're half-anonymous on the [[Internet], one has to consider that everything you say and do reflects on your employers. Getting online and ripping on a city is really not that much different from getting up on a soapbox where lots of people in that town can hear you. People need to realize that the Internet is a big deal and that you need to be responsible for what you do and what you say online.
So I often think that people who do stupid things online get what they deserve. Hopefully people will start to get the message that the tradeoff for constant information and forums to spout about anything is that people pay attention and that you lose that privacy. If you don't want people to hear something you think, keep it in your head.
Five years from now, I think the situation will be the same or worse and I think people will be MORE sensitive to issues like this. It is a big deal to not think before you speak. It is a big deal to embarrass your employer and yourself. It is a big deal to lack responsibility for the noise you project into the ether.
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M$
Interesting that you think the situation will be the same or worse in the future.
As I think every answer here touches on, I understand that we all have a responsibility to think before speaking and if you don't have anything nice to say to keep quiet, but I think we have a lot to lose if we all follow this doctrine religiously.
I guess I am afraid that just as blackberrys have made it so that people are always at work, now whenever someone says something it automatically and necessarily must reflect on their company. I want to be able to separate my personal and professional life and this will hamper that effort considerably.
Doesn't anyone else remember the days when if you did something outside of school you weren't punished in school because it was none of their business?
If you and the other answerers here are right, we are looking forward to a time when we have no privacy and no ability to question the things we don't like.
I travel for work. PR is important to my company. When on a business trip, I'd never say anything like he said. Actually, my momma taught me, "If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all." I do try to live by that rule.
I don't think I would be offended if Mr. Influencer had that opinion of my town. However, I don't think it is polite to insult a city. I would not have fired him for insulting the city, but I would have fired him if he cost me the contract. I don't think my opinion will change in 5 or 50 years.
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M$
When you google a potential employee what types of things raise a red flag for you? If they mention they hate a certain food or color that you like does that really change your opinion of them?
PR and marketing are basically all about lying and/or misleading the public into believing one version of events. If an employee is good at that when on stage, do their comments online change that? So now people know he was lying and Memphis isn't the best city in the world . . . if they were so naive to think he was telling the truth the first time I think they deserve the shock of learning he tells every city it is the best.