Dumb and Dumbest
During a long meeting with a client, stretching into early evening hours, Daren — an advertising exec — tweeted dozens of messages while pretending to pay attention to the discussion with a difficult client.
“Dude, I should thank this agency for letting me stay here until 7:30. Who needs an evening to oneself?”
“X Industries asks the dumbest questions. I can’t believe I’ve had to sit here and deal with this for what? – four hours?”
“Oh. Wow. More stupid questions? ”
“ Blah blah blah. Who needs a life”?
Career Suicide
I’m not making this up. This is for real. I just fictionalized the guilty and modified the tweets. Imagine if you were the client or the boss and discovered this stream of sarcastic comments on twitter. What would you do?
Watch out for BIT’s
Hard to believe that someone would put these off-the-cuff comments in writing and risk not just the future of an account, but the company’s reputation and his job. Unfortunately, many of us have a compulsive need to share – anything and everything – including our innermost thoughts in writing. And to make matters worse, Darren had a beer around 4:30 and so who knows? He may be writing Beer Induced Tweets (BITs)– not a good habit to get into.
Can’t we Learn Something from Alec Baldwin?
True, Mr. Baldwin ‘s angry, full-on, expletive message to his daughter a few years ago was not a tweet but a voice mail. Still, it went viral, and it tainted his image in the public eye. Karen Friedman, in her book Shut Up and Say Something, claims he regrets those remarks every day of his life. The main difference, though, between Mr. Baldwin and us? (Well there might be a number of differences but the one that matters?) He’s a BIG celebrity whose success on Saturday night Live and the hit series 30 Rock redeemed him. In fact, even after this humiliating incident, Capital One hired him as their spokesperson.
Redemption is for Special People
Redemption in the business world is a rarity. It’s one thing to say something inappropriate, apologize, and let the words evaporate. But when written words go viral, they take on a powerful punch: We may end up paying the consequences for some time to come. Just remember for every Alec Baldwin, there’s an Anthony Weiner or a Michael Richards, or a Mel Gibson, or for that matter, Richard Nixon.
Four Rules You Must Follow, and here they are:
What can we do to prevent us from writing inappropriate entrees in Facebook, Twitter, or in an email?
1. Acknowledge Your Problem. Face the mirror. If you’re an impulsive speed writer and believe in sharing everything – whatever it might be – accept the curse and refuse to let it take your soul. Attend one of my workshops, and I’ll teach you a formula you must follow every time you write an email, a tweet, or a Facebook entry that would ensure your success.
2. Edit rigorously. We think it makes us look cool to say exactly what’s on our mind, as if we believed we’re immune from disaster. Realize that what you leave out in your writing is as important as what you put in. In social media, editing is essential.
3. Develop a healthy sense of doubt. Our personalities are such that we truly think we can get away with saying anything because, well, man, can’t you take a joke?
What’s the big deal? I’m just saying it like it is. Don’t you have thick skin? You know that’s not what I meant.
Snap out of it. You don’t know who might read your tweet. It could be shared, broadcast, or duplicated. Develop a healthy sense of doubt, and doubt every word, every adjective, before you press, “send.”
4. Turn off your cell phone. We’re trained not to speak our minds but to write what’s on our minds. That’s a strong pattern in social media; so if you experience this temptation regularly, TURN OFF YOUR CELLPHONE during meetings. It’s unprofessional, rude, and ultimately a job killer.
Final Words from a Job Savior
Think of Twitter as a way to market your business, not to gossip. Train your staff to know what goes in and what stays out of social media and have each staff member sign an agreement that shows he or she understands the rules.
It may have seemed cute, even acceptable in high school to tweet the latest and hottest news (“My gym locker smells like barf”) but in business, this comes off quite juvenile.
F Scott Fitzgerald may be precisely right when he said, “There are no second acts. “ You screw up in business – in this day and age? You may have a devil of a time finding another boss or a client who will trust you.