WARNING: Companies beware...Your Twitter A/c could be next on hostage
The love story has come to a tragic end. The online music retail has brutally abated the romance of thousands of music lovers with their favorite music store - HMV. The adrenaline rush of emotions and excitement to buy a new CD/DVD first, the smell of a fresh vinyl record, the pride and the joy of holding the CD/DVD of your favorite artists is all gone in a flash...Are we ready to say Adios to HMV? I guess, but not as much in Poppy's style!!!
At 9:45 AM on Jan 31, a 21 year old angry employee, Poppy Rose Cleere who by the way also happens to be HMV's Social Media Planner, held the HMV’s official Twitter account hostage by tweeting live about mass firing of hundreds of employees including her. Things quickly got worse. In the course of seven subsequent Tweets, the 92 years of romance of company’s more than 70,000 Twitter followers around the globe turned into anger and hatred. Here's the twitter trail of the HMV's hijacked Twitter account.
History has made it evident that downsizing is the bitter pill companies and its employees have to swallow during tough times. In the light of such downsizing, are the actions of disgruntled employee such as Poppy Rose aka poppy_powers justified in ruining the brand image of the company which she once dearly loved? Here's Poppy's justification for her actions:
Sure, being rebellious gets you attention, it even gets you heard and turns you into a hero. Only momentarily though. My question is, would Poppy Rose resort to the courage to tell the truth if she was not fired that day?? I guess not. She had the power to be heard, power to influence but based on how she choose to use that power that day, will any other employer trust her integrity again? The Millennials demand instant gratification for everything on their wish list. Failures and setbacks are not taken easily. All the anger and frustration comes out as a social media vomit without thinking about ramifications. Very soon similar hijacking was reported for companies such as Jeep and Burger King. There are two important lessons to be learned here.
Employees need to understand the importance of one's ethics, responsibility and integrity over and above pulling off a personal-agenda driven stunt to make your point. The truth was going to come out anyway. Capital 3G, the private equity firm turned around ailing Burger King by taking similar cost-cutting measures. I would always recommend a graceful exit strategy is the mature way of dealing with such situations.
Lesson #2: Companies must implement Social Media Management Systems to avoid such PR debacles.
Robust software tools known as Social Media Management Systems have been around to manage and protect companies’ social media assets. Companies need to have a sound social media policy in place before they blindly embrace social media platforms. Having centralized social media channels, controlled access through limited permissions and a single master switch for turning ON/OFF employees’ access to different social media accounts, can safeguard enterprise-level social media tools. Here's a list of vendors who could do that for you.
So, for all those Social Media Managers next time when you find yourself between a rock and a hard place, choose wise. In legal parlance, 'You win the argument but loose the case' or 'You loose the argument but win the case'. The choice is yours.
So, for all those Social Media Managers next time when you find yourself between a rock and a hard place, choose wise. In legal parlance, 'You win the argument but loose the case' or 'You loose the argument but win the case'. The choice is yours.
