How Not to be a Key Online Influencer
[UPDATE] A friend initially shared this story with me recently, and I have delayed posting it until confirmation. It’s a story about a PR account executive/vice president named James Andrews from Ketchum in Atlanta who flew to Memphis to visit FedEx, one of the agency’s biggest clients. Andrews’ mission was to — now, this is important — talk with the corporate communications people at FedEx about social media.
Upon landing in Memphis, Andrews posted this message on the popular social media, mini-blogging service, Twitter, that’s widely followed by business people worldwide:
“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 (right) 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 this personal message to Mr. “KeyInfluencer:”
Mr. Andrews, If I interpret your post correctly, these are your comments about Memphis a few hours after arriving in the global headquarters city of one of your key and lucrative clients, and the home of arguably one of the most important entrepreneurs in the history of business, FedEx founder Fred Smith. Many of my peers and I feel this is inappropriate. We do not know the total millions of dollars FedEx Corporation pays Ketchum annually for the valuable and important work your company does for us around the globe. We are confident however, it is enough to expect a greater level of respect and awareness from someone in your position as a vice president at a major global player in your industry. A hazard of social networking is people will read what you write. Not knowing exactly what prompted your comments, I will admit the area around our airport is a bit of an eyesore, not without crime, prostitution, commercial decay, and a few potholes. But there is a major political, community, religious, and business effort underway, that includes FedEx, to transform that area. We’re hopeful that over time, our city will have a better “face” to present to visitors. James, everyone participating in today’s event, including those in the auditorium with you this morning, just received their first paycheck of 2009 containing a 5% pay cut … which we wholeheartedly support because it continued the tradition established by Mr. Smith of doing whatever it takes to protect jobs. Considering that we just entered the second year of a U.S. recession, and we are experiencing significant business loss due to the global economic downturn, many of my peers and I question the expense of paying Ketchum to produce the video open for today’s event; work that could have been achieved by internal, award-winning professionals with decades of experience in television production. Additionally Mr. Andrews, with all due respect, to continue the context of your post; true confession: many of my peers and I don’t see much relevance between your presentation this morning and the work we do in Employee Communications.
(Signed as a personal message by a member of the FedEx Corporate Communications team)
I attempted to get a comment from Andrews and Ray Kotcher, CEO of Ketchum, but no response.* The corporate communications department at FedEx, however, was immediately open and transparent in confirming the story, names and events. FedEx has issued this statement:
“This is an unfortunate situation and demonstrates very poor judgment by Mr. Andrews. The reaction by our employees proves once again that FedEx takes great pride in our hometown of Memphis. This lapse in judgment also demonstrates the need to apply fundamental communications principles in the evolving social networking environment: Think before you speak; be careful of you what you say and how you say it. Mr. Andrews made a mistake, and he has apologized. We are moving on.”
Andrews … remember … had flown to Memphis to coach FedEx on using online social media.
Makes one wonder what he knows. Big agencies, in general, are new to many of the evolving online communications tools, like social media.
Maybe the people at Ketchum should read my new, free ebook on social media, “Media Savvy in the Internet Era.” (Sorry, I couldn’t resist that plug to end such a story!)
* [Add to this post at 7:53 p.m EST: At 5:03 p.m. this evening - 2 hours after I had asked Ketchum CEO Ray Kotcher via email for comment - a fellow called from Ketchum on Kotcher's behalf. He said Ketchum had a statement; I asked him to send it by email, and I would run verbatim. The statement has not arrived, even though I asked Kotcher again via email to have it sent. From a journalist's perspective ... heck, for that matter, from anyone's perspective ... this lack of transparency and openness is troubling, in my opinion, especially for a large public relations firm. dh]
[8:46 p.m. update - Ketchum comments] Just received this statement via email from Ketchum PR, New York:
It was a lapse in judgment and we’ve apologized to our client. We greatly value this long standing client relationship. It is our privilege to work with them.
[Signed:] Marv Gellman, VP, Director Media Relations, New York Technology Practice
Filed Under: Featured • Public Relations • Social Media
About the Author: David is a veteran communications strategist ... writer ... blogger ... online publisher ... and Emmy Award winning former CBS Network News correspondent. He lives in the Washington, D. C., area, and works worldwide.
Erika,
Have you, by chance, read the subsequent blog postings here on this issue?
David
[...] How Not to be a Key Online Influencer | David Henderson – author, journalist. Share and Enjoy: [...]
I must say that I find the entire incident disturbing. The fact that someone doesn’t care for a city, personally, should mean nothing. So Fedex penalized a company for having a negative opinion about Memphis. And if someone says they like Memphis, perhaps another potential client will take issue with that? (“What a putz – he *likes* Memphis? Let’s not to business with them!”)
The fact that someone at Fedex took the time to whine about a person not liking a city, and wasting corporate resources to change choices, presumably then not on merit but on irrelevant criteria, says something about the lack of business acumen within some parts of Fedex, as well.
Not to be able to express a relatively benign personal opinion on social media seems a little … well, what Americans have become well-known for: intolerance. What is next for Fedex: you must only profess to like the color blue? you must not slag southern practices, past or present? you must be a fan of particular sports team?
But I thought this behavior was confined to the “unsophisticated” and adolescents. I mean, really – will everyone get a brain and start acting like adults instead of a gaggle of high school girls?
It may be “benign” to visit someone and take a quick whiz on a lawn ornament, but it’s certainly rude. It’s certainly no less rude when the person you are going to see is your boss.
So we saw who was irritated by the comment, how many people were well served by it? Considerably less than a handful? Why make such comments? The fact that today everyone is given a forum gives some people the inflated ego to think their comments really matter, and that thousands are waiting on their every royal word and decree. Nobody really cares but those whom you offend.
Wow. Great lesson here in this age of immediate gratification meets the internet.
Personally, I think it was brilliant. Except one thing. He didn’t take the buzz and kerfuffle that Tweet caused with FedEx and turn it into proof of his very own point about the power of social media.
Instead of saying, “See? One person following one person reads one comment and it flows through people and businesses in the blink of an eye.” … he apologized for making a mistake. THAT was his mistake.
Not much of a spin doctor that one.
[...] no escaping the Social Media wildfire. You can run, but you can’t outrun it. And here is a perfect example of the real power of social media, from January 21st, [...]
This instance clearly displays the power of social media and its impact in the business world. Regardless of whether or not his Twitter comment was made outside of work or may have been non-work related, he should have known better. Especially since he is suppose to be an expert in the field. If you can’t tweet anything nice… don’t tweet anything at all!
[...] 1, 2009 · No Comments As a response to Be Careful What You Post (Shankman.com) and How Not to be an Online Influencer (David Henderson), I must agree that we all must think twice before posting a comment, a tweet, a [...]
[...] Andrews’ tweet about Memphis, as reported in the excellent blog coverage of this issue on David Henderson’s blog: This lapse in judgment also demonstrates the need to apply fundamental communications principles [...]
[...] The evidence is everywhere. We see the demise of relationships, axes to grind, pure anger, mob mentalities, bruised egos, bitterness, love, hate, and fraud all played out in glorious real time and beyond, thanks to digital footprints. [...]
David,
When I saw this I went to James Andrew’s blog where he had written his side of the events that took place. I proceeded to leave Mr. Andrews a comment, in which I said that he was completely irresponsible, this should not be a mistake by someone who dons himself a “key influencer” and should eat crow (there was more to it than that, but you get the point.) When I posted the comment it said it was waiting approval. A few days later I returned to Mr. Andrews site and noticed that not only was my comment not posted on the site, but that most of the comments that appeared only seemed to support Mr. Andrews.
I find it ironic that a man who bills himself as a key influencer can’t man up to his own mistake, and then won’t allow any comments that don’t directly support him appear on his site.
[...] was reading a recent blog by David Henderson about the PR account executive/vice president, James Andrews from Ketchum. He flew to Memphis to [...]
[...] you risk being mocked and giving me more reason to consider starting a @terribletweet profile or separate blog to feature [...]
[...] How Not to be a Key Online Influencer by @davidhenderson This story seems a little tough to me. I'd heard about this story and so was interested in the full run down. I don't know any of the parties. It may have been a dumb tweet and FedEx was clearly upset although I'm not sure the public responses of FedEx are all the mature either. I think people need to consider a body of work rather than a single Tweet. (tags: twitter PR fedex) [...]
[...] insulting to customers. It’s not the first time negative comments made on social media have backfired, it seems many people who use social media still aren’t sure where the privacy line should be [...]
[...] makes sense that a social media expert from a major PR agency would NEVER do something stupid like this. (Sorry, I couldn’t [...]
The policy line should always be to say what you think as long as it has substance. We often pick friendly fights with clients because it gives wide ranging views.Between us we arrive at a much higher resolution of conflict instead of mediocre compromise.
The problem with companies that don’t encourage free thought is that they limit opportunity.
When things go wrong the person who said nothing while decisions were being made is usually the first to say I knew it and we should have done this that and the other.
No, say what you think as long as there is nomalice intended.
[...] Unprofessional Twitter update from agency offends client [...]
[...] How To Be A Key Online Influencer – Fits in with my post earlier this week about the aborted “When Not To Blog” article. A reminder of why everything you say should be considered carefully…. especially when words are your livelihood! [...]
[...] PR, in my opinion, is still clueless over the now-famous social media crisis its Twitter-FedEx fiasco caused. The whole story is in the [...]
Why not try a Trackstick for this?
[...] PR, in my opinion, is still clueless over the now-famous social media crisis its Twitter-FedEx fiasco caused. The whole story is in the [...]
[...] In extreme cases, bad employees can pull bone-headed moves like the infamous Dominos video . Other times, they’re just not aware of who might be reading their tweets. [...]
[...] How Not to be a Key Online Influencer – An example of how a self-labeled “key online influencer” can easily get cut down by the same social networking services he’s trying to promote — by the company he’s trying to promote them to. A lesson for anyone who blogs or tweets: when you say something publicly, ANYONE can read it. By David Henderson. Thanks to @SonoranDragon on Twitter for retweeting this link. [...]
[...] Opinions: As the Ketchum PR disaster already taught us, if you have an opinion detrimental to your customer you would be best to zip it [...]
I agree with Henaway & Rahel Bailie – an over-reaction from Fedex, betraying great insecurity and spikiness about Memphis. I like my community and think it’s great. But if someone else does not, more fool them and anyway, they’re entitled to their opinion.
However, it was definitely a missed opportunity by the Ketchum man. He had a good chance of passing it off as some sort of learning experience, done deliberately to prove a point at his presentation.
Overall though, this fuss has reminded me that I have never been to Memphis. I must remedy that.
[...] Big Agency exec uses Social Media to talk smack about his biggest client’s home town – Looks like once again my statements from last month are holding true. Traditional ad agencies really don’t understand how to use many new forms of Social Media. More so, in this case, James Andrews from Ketchum in Atlanta didn’t think his Twitter “tweet” would make him look like such a fool in cyberspace. (Don’t worry, I gave him a shout out too) [...]
[...] etc. It’s so easy to become a Twitterverse legend, and not in a good way — just ask the guy who famously insulted a client’s city! You feel safe when you can see all the faces of your followers, but it’s an illusion. This [...]
Actually, I think it shows the FedEx communications team have more social media savvy than they’re being credited with. You’re republishing their pitch about how committed they are to Memphis and how much they’re doing for the city.
They’ve take a pretty non-noteworthy tweet and turned it into an Internet controversy which makes them look good and gain free exposure while everyone spreads the word because they think it makes Andrews look like a dork.
Dork or not, the FedEx response was a pretty smooth move.
[...] If you want to know more about the FedEx story, go here. [...]
[...] of it might be more successful than others so we can expect some train wrecks before the guide lines are written [...]