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.
* [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
Category: Featured, Public Relations, Social Media
this is soooo funny!!! thanks for sharing.
@rr, this guy deserves an award for the biggest D*-bag in Social Media! Seriously.
Cringe-worthy!
Ouch. Don’t let the talk about being kicked in the long tail.
Sorry, meant to say “talk about being kicked in the long tail.”
I’ve read several reports on this, but I’m not surprised to find that yours is the most thorough and insightful. Thanks for another good read and a lesson to learn from.
That was extremely helpful and informative. I am new to twitter and am still learning the finer points. This is something I will not forget.
All I can say is wow. That’s hard hitting. I was about to say what was Andrews thinking, but it is clear he wasn’t.
David:
First of all, thanks for confirming all of this before writing about it. Rumors of this had popped up and down recently without anyone taking the time to make sure it was true. It certainly is a black eye on the PR profession.
I own an employee communications firm just outside of Atlanta. We compete with the likes of Ketchum and other large firms on a regular basis. And, despite our size, we win our fair share of the business. When we find out why we’ve won when up against some of these larger firms, it is usually partly because we didn’t come off as cocky and condescending during the process. When we hear this, we are always shocked that others project this image and that it continues to be a problem. I’m not sure why that is. Clearly not all large firms or everyone at a large firm is like this. But I hear it enough to know that it continues to be a problem.
As an aside, I spent six months in Memphis working on site for a client going through an acquisition and subsequent layoffs. I loved Memphis and found it energizing. What I wouldn’t give for a rack of ribs from the Rendezvous restaurant right now.
Thanks for sharing this story and some of the valuable lessons it teaches us all, especially those of us in PR, about social media, client service, perceptions and respect.
Hi David:
Shouldn’t this really to be filed under tempest in a teapot? This seems more like one of those episodes where only the “social media pundits” tsk tsk everyone and act as if they have never made an off-hand comment they later regretted. When you use social media platforms — mistakes will be made. That’s a guarantee. We’re all human. Everyone, including you, are trying to figure out how to use instantaneous communication in the best possible way (especially as quickly as it changes).
A better way to assess Mr. Andrews is how he reacted after he blundered. It seems as if he fell on his sword and apologized to his client. Seems as if he’s showing good character. He doesn’t appear to be circling the wagons and defending his mistake. Fed-Ex has moved on – so shouldn’t we all?
@George Snell,
Mr. Snell,
I reached out to Mr. Andrews and the head of Ketchum and got no response.
dh
@George Snell, You’ve missed the point. He was counseling FedEx on using social media. We all make mistakes, but from a PR perspective how you handle the mistake is key. I doubt Ketchum execs would EVER counsel a client to handle a blunder the way they did here. The social media channel may be new and the cycle runs faster, but these kind of blunders have been happening for decades in other media. He moved this from a social media program to a crisis communications program. In this case the client did a much better job of handling the crisis. If I were FedEx, I’d send them a bill for their executives time, at crisis rates. The best thing Ketchum can do now is figure out what they did wrong (it wasn’t just the post apparently. The video was off base and expensive and shown to a large group that just took a 5% pay cut.) and teach others what they’ve learned. I certainly wouldn’t hire Ketchum for my social media campaigns now, but if they do this right, they could come out as experts who don’t just preach, but have actually been through the trenches themselves.
@Sue Rodman, Sue, I think you’re confusing two different things. The VP Twittered about his dislike of Memphis, the hometown of FEDEX. FEDEX took offense to this. The VP then apologized for his remarks.
What does the video and employees taking a 5 percent cut have to do with that?
And I’d hardly call off-hand comments on Twitter a crisis for FEDEX since they were the ones who voluntarily went public with all of this.
But if you’re interested, I write more about it here: http://tinyurl.com/cmlxhg
@George Snell,
@Sue Rodman isn’t confusing issues. The rumor was that following this incident the VP walked in and delivered a very costly and not very well made presentation to a group of people who had just had a pay cut and had already heard about his Twitter blunder. The whole thing was badly received.
@George Snell, This isn’t a crisis for FedEx, I think they handled things well. I would treat it as a crisis for Ketchum. If I’m a potential client reading this story why do I want to go with a firm that 1. doesn’t get back to reporters in a timely manner. 2. creates off-base programs 3. charges a lot to be off-base and 4. if I want a social media expert, why would I go with someone whose clients do a better job than the firm I’m hiring? Of course we don’t know the entire story, but as with most things, it doesn’t matter. If I’m on the pitch team of a competing firm that’s going up against Ketchum for any new business, I’d be sure to ask the potential client these questions.
@George Snell, I couldn’t agree more. Talk about a storm in a teacup.
@Bill Hunt, Thanks Bill. In response to Sue Rodman. I don’t think a flub on Twitter counts as a “crisis.” Plane crashes, arrests, product recalls, stock manipulation, corruption, etc… That’s what I’d define as a “crisis.” I predict that Ketchum loses exactly zero clients as a result of this.
I still don’t think the off-base has a thing to do with the Twitter incident. It’s another matter. And clearly FEDEX hired Ketchum to do the off-base. Whether it was a good idea in light of the lay-offs is another matter entirely.
I get a kick out of the discussions I hear about having a “personal” and a “professional” presence online. I write in many different places on the web, and truly believe that every single word must be something that I’d be willing to have a client read ten years from now. Or a pastor look at tomorrow. Or my family, enemies, partners or political opponents dig through.
Nothing ever goes away, and the only way to be private is to be completely uninteresting. Luckily, I’ll never be able to achieve that.
@Dick Carlson,
But personal doesn’t necessarily mean inappropriate. Being personal, especially in social media, attracts genuineness and people can see that (not all but some). Versus writing about professional issues, it gives your biz/profile/group an attractive personality.. and at times, a hook to reach out to new groups of people and businesses.
I do agree that personality w/ inappropriate language, themes, or whatever is a bad bad mistake though.
@Ryan,
I certainly include an attractive personality (well, YMMV) on my blog: TechHerding.com.
But what I’m talking about in terms of information I wouldn’t share out on the web might include the fact that I do have a particular political POV that is only shared by about 50% of the people in the country. And my opinions on capital punishment, global warming, free trade, child rearing and paper-vs-plastic are all not shared by a very large part of the population.
While I’d like to believe that we live in an environment where we can have a civil discourse on all of these topics and more, that just isn’t the case. And if I give free rein to all my little thoughts and opinions, I risk annoying (or even worse, offending) a big part of the audience.
The same reason that I wouldn’t wear a “Red Sox” jersey to an interview with the Yankees…
@Dick Carlson, I completely agree. If you would not be comfortable with anyone anytime anywhere reading it with your name attached, don’t write it.
@Dick Carlson, I’m with you only I use my grandmother, (tho she is gone now) as in ‘what if my grandma found out about this?’ and I have avoided many a bad move because of it!
Thank You Grandma!
Pam Hoffman
http://seminarlist.blogspot.com
@Dick Carlson, Amen to that.
This shows the power of social networks and Twitter in particular. A great lesson. Thank you for taking the time to lay out the details.
Yeeouch!!
Thanks. I just shared this valuable lesson with my team. You’d think this would only have to be shared with the rookies. Think again…
Maybe this is something we should share with all those “smart” kids who are hiding things from their parents while showing off to their friends…
I see this in a different light. If the comment was about Fedex, sending a letter saying you are offended to a customer/potential customer would not be appropriate, so why do it to a consumer of the place you live. An open mind will attract more people to you than an open mouth.
The customer should be the focus. If they don’t like what you have you can engage them to understand how you can make it better. That is the beauty of social media, learning what the customer REALLY thinks. Putting your nose in the air is plain arrogance.
My 2c
Actually, he did respond. Be fair, he has a public blog (http://www.thekeyinfluencer.com/channel/2009/01/16/twittersituation/#comments)
But, you knew that already.
I don’t know if I agree with his excuse, but you can see how that could have been taken out of context.
A
@Alan Edgett,
I do not agree with you. First, I checked his site but did not find anything about the FedEx event. But — and you are free to call me an old-fashioned journalist — I wanted to hear his side from his lips, so I attempted to call him. No response.
Do you know absolutely, positively, guaranteed, for sure, cross-your-heart that he is behind that blog and wrote those words? No, you don’t, and neither do I. That’s why reporters call people.
DH
@DH,
To be fair, David, if you’re saying he might not have wrote his blog, then the same logic could be used to say he did not write his tweet.
Sure, he could have answered the phone or called you back but then maybe he was also tired of having to defend a mistake. Which is what it was – an error in judgment.
We all make them – it’s how we respond that makes us and the guy seems genuinely repentant. It’s something he learned from – time to move on.
He did actually respond…
http://www.thekeyinfluencer.com/channel/2009/01/16/twittersituation/#comments
D.
This is all part of the sound byte culture. Just because you tweet something doesn’t mean people will appreciate it, especially not in that context.
It also addresses the social media and person off the street issue. What were they objecting to. Any information about the presentation we could look at?
I think Allison speaks to the more profound lesson. Yea, Andrews goofed.
But social media is about getting real. The lesson is to be open to the real-ness.
after all, it was not something for fedex to take personally, note how they unwittingly almost seem to agree to agree with him (“I will admit the area around our airport is a bit of an eyesore, not without crime, prostitution, commercial decay, and a few potholes.”) i think the better less is for fedex; along the lines of embracing criticism and not taking an aside personally
It’s easy to throw stones, and easy to say “I’d never do something like that.” But, the truth is the longer you use online communication channels, the easier it becomes to make such a goof.
I had my own Twitter slip recently [story here "Oh Be Careful Little Fingers What You Type", including a comment from someone mentioning the Ketchum story] and it wasn’t caused by my lack of knowledge or awareness.
I’ve been twittering away for nearly two years now and know how Google-able my online words are; but, when you’re relaxed with conversing in such a manner, you can slip into a habit of not looking at your words from other points of view.
@LPT
Peter Shankman covered this last week:
http://shankman.com/be-careful-what-you-post/
@Jennifer Leggio,
He posted the letter from the FedEx employee, not the complete story.
@DH, I’m still pondering the fact that we haven’t seen anyone’s name at FedEx attached to the now infamous letter. I find it curious that not many PR folks are talking about anonymity and its affect on this issue. When posted on the Shankman site it noted Mr. Andrews and the email, but didn’t show any ownership. Yes, the two companies have a relationship, but what are the ramifications when a large, publicly traded company calls out its agency on the Internet – specifically a single person? We all know plenty about Mr. Andrews, but nothing from the corporate side. I’m not saying one is right or wrong, but wonder why we aren’t examining the dynamic that anonymous emails/posts have on our profession.
David,
Thank you for compiling all the different pieces of the story! This story is a perfect example of how there really is no separation between “personal” and “business” on the web. From blogs to social networking sites, I’ve seen and heard of people getting in trouble for comments, content, or pictures they post. Many people, especially the younger ones, fail to realize that the internet is public. Everything can be accessed one way or the other.
Although my Facebook account tends to lean on the more “personal” side say compared to my LinkedIn account, I still don’t post any pictures of me in compromising situations. Even then, I fully utilize Facebook’s multiple privacy settings – separating people into different privacy groups. My coworkers don’t need to be able to see tagged pictures of me nor do they need to see that album of my friend’s birthday party.
Social media is about making connections on a more personal level, but at the same time, you need to be aware of your “surroundings.” The age-old saying still applies, “Think before you speak.” In this case, think before you tweet.
@Beatriz Alemar, So true. There is no separation of “business” and “personal” in social media. I think this is a lesson in subjective and objective impressions. Most the time, social media gets bulked into the subjective category, I think. How are people interpreting your message? Literally? To heart? Something to think about next time before I post a Tweet. That’s for sure. -Becky @rarmendariz
This situation reminds me of a comment from Dr. P.M. Forni’s work on civility: ‘To a large extent the quality of our life depends on the quality of our relationships. The quality of our relationships depends on the quality of our relational skills.’
This would have been a whole lot less interesting if his handle wasn’t “The Key Influencer”. A little too ironic, don’t you think.
I do find his response and reasoning understandable, even if he meant it towards Memphis, we can’t blame him for his personal feelings. That being said, expect that people are listening and might get upset and deal with it openly right away. His unwillingness (unable)to address this issue openly and immediately has led to a blow up of a small issue.
Classic!
I loathed Mempis for 2 years..but while I did business there…nobody ever knew and I only had nice things to say–because I was taught back when there was no such thing as Social Media–that if you can not say something nice..its best to say nothin’ all and that especially holds true if you are fixin’ to do business in Memphis. Maybe you don’t have to worry about offending all the people but perhaps its a good idea to not offend those you may want to become your clients.
wow, too bad for ketchum – this one guy could cost them a large account. it goes to show people forget how powerful social media can be.
I heard about this the other week. Was kind of confused at first. Eventually realized that it could have been the same with my town.
I could have event been is Andrews’ shoes. We all say things at the top of our head and later on think, “I’m an idiot!!! Why did I say that?”
Sometimes it’s hard to know what to say. Twitter isn’t the privacy of our own homes. When we speak, it’s radiated out to a lot of people. We’ve got to think before we speak and try to remember who’s going to be reading this. It’s the internet, anyone could? Right?
Another problem is, with social media tools like Twitter that limit your message to 140 characters it’s easy to mistake someones words. Lots of what we read on Twitter could be taken many different ways, depending on your mood that morning, how busy you are etc. It’s easy to make a joke that pokes fun at someone in a certain way, and a reader could take that as an insult. That’s just what we have to put up with now days, information’s everywhere.
I’m not making excuses for what Andrews said. However it’s important to take these things into consideration.
When it comes down to it, we all need to be careful about what we say both on and off the internet.
Regards
Clinton Skakun
Social media gives you the power to share your opinion with millions of people. But people have treat this power with the delicate care it needs. Be cautious and be smart about what you say. I always tell my friends to avoid posting anything their parents wouldn’t approve off.
Perhaps it’s different, living on planet PR, but the whiny person at FedEx sounds like a self-important, busybody, petty, little tyrant to those of us living on Earth.
But thanks for the heads-up. If I ever get my balls snipped off and want to spend the rest of my career as a slimy, spineless, wormy, little ass-kisser I know there will always be a job ready for me in PR.
@Reddit.com, I beg to differ about the FedEx staffer. I loved the response. It was written in an even, but extremely pointed tone.
Here’s the deal, FedEx pays Ketchum. A lot of money. If I’m walking into a store in my neighborhood and the cashiers are complaining about how they hate the area and are glad they live outside it, I’m turning right around and going to a different store. I’m not going to want to spend my money there–even if they don’t represent the views of the store owner. Similarly, this tweet should be told amongst friends in a bar after the trip, not in a public forum. He shouldn’t go to their city (a city they openly express their pride in) trying to make money off them and then disparage the area. Classless!
I’d heard about this kerfuffle as well, but this post added all the right elements to round it out. In my book, everyone is entitled to think that a client’s city (or baby, for that matter) is ugly, but the key word in this sentence is “think.” Mr. Andrews counsels people on the reach and immediacy of social media tools like Twitter. To slip up like that on such a major account is, well, amateurish. Just sayin’.
Maybe this would better be titled:
“How a multinational corporation can be overly defensive about their home town”.
FedEx has some seriously thin-skinned, notoriously incompetent executives and managers. To make such a tempest out of a teapot tells more about FedEx than about this other poor dumb guy.
But it is amusing that so much of corporate life appears to be all about making sure you (at least on the surface) kiss ass continually.
my bs radar is going off through all of this. This guy is supposed to be a media expert and key influencer, based upon his own words, but he doesn’t realize that with only 140 words, one may best forego tweeting when “upset” as it could be percieved as it was.
The part that is even more upsetting is that he is willing to have his wife battle his battle?
Personally I say, Man Up, bite the bullet, admit you made a Huge mistake, apologize Publicly instead of distilling the whole event into what appears to be total excuses.. Please, you hated a whole town because of One person, and then Write about it??? who are you kidding?
Seriously, if that is the best you can do, and YOU are the Social Media Expert, well then maybe.
FYI his wife only allows positive posts that are in defense of her husband. Which is also what appears to be the case in Mr Andrews case. I find it suspect that there does not appear to be any responses there that challenge his position
Just a humble opinion from a business owner
Personal feelings have no business in business.
Wow that’s one way to drop the ball. There are so many things he could have done to save that situation from being a bad one and even turned it around to better prove his point.
Complete fail on that guys part. Really.
I second that, Mr. Miller!! These corporate execs need to effing get over themselves. Sheesh.
Rick Miller | Jan 21, 2009 | Reply
Maybe this would better be titled:
“How a multinational corporation can be overly defensive about their home town”.
If you don’t want to read it on the front page of the New York Times, don’t put it in writing.
Whoa, I learned a lot about FedEx and Memphis from this story, and that’s all I’m saying here.
big deal, the guy said what he felt. What- a person can’t have an opinion anymore?
Those FedEx idiots need to get off their high horses
Integrity still rules. That is all.
We can laugh and make a toast to the perfect irony of the situation, but it’s all just smoke and negativity unless we start thinking about solutions.
If the best solution we can come up with is “Watch What You Say On-Line,” then our creativity and our fate are at the mercy of the tools.
While I’m incensed that anyone who calls themselves a social media expert would make such a simple gaffe, I won’t be piling up on the laugh wagon just yet. That could have been any of us in a moment of weakness or boredom. Instead of pointing fingers, let’s put our heads together and think of some solutions. The old adage of “Think Before You Speak” always rings true but it fails to take the false security of the new tools into account.
Architecture dictates behavior. We can strive for a better design, one that will protect the less savvy of us, the young, the innocent. Don’t worry; Darwin’s Theory will still weed out the incompetent even if we have safeguards in the design of social media tools.
Does you have any ideas on how we can change this situation? Time delays? Tiered distribution? (e.g. your inner circle gets your tweet first. Your inner circle has time to reply to you, perhaps suggesting that you delete your mistweet, before your 2nd & 3rd tier sees it).
Any other ideas?
“If the best solution we can come up with is ‘Watch What You Say On-Line,’ then our creativity and our fate are at the mercy of the tools.”
Absolutely.
First of all, as you know, *EVERYBODY* calls themselves an SME these days, regardless of what they actually know.
The fact of the matter is… Situations like this are what push SM people underground and to the back-channels. Everybody’s so SCARED to say what they’re really thinking that you end up with a bunch of people that agree with each other on paper and then talk about each other incessantly behind all of our backs. This is a good thing for keeping the peace, and an HORRIBLE thing for transparency/authenticity between people.
Regardless of what @keyinfluencer typed and/or what he meant or the context, the fact remains that he had a particular sentiment that stemmed from SOMETHING that he experienced in that town. Having read his statements about the situation, he says he was talking about an incident he had within an hotel with an “intolerant person”. I can see how, in his mind, complaining about that particular run-in, within the confines of 140 characters, would prompt him to say he would hate to live there… BECAUSE people like this intolerant person inhabit the area.
Therefore, I believe the MAIN fault lies in @keyinfluencer’s inability to articulately condense his thoughts about one incident into 140 characters. “This idiot just disrespected me in this hotel”. “I can’t stand intolerant people. Mind your effing business”. Unfortunately for him, his generalized statement caught the interest of his company’s clients and this whole thing blew up in his face.
My point is that there are three issues here. 1) His sentiment, 2) His “right” to post his feelings to the internet and 3) His improper articulation on Twitter.
Does he have a right to feel disrespected? Sure. Everybody does. Does he have a right to post his feelings to the internet? Sure, but he has to accept the RESPONSIBILITY of expressing himself in a fashion that accurately represents himself AND, in his particular case, appropriately represents the company that he works for and is representing to his clients.
@Bill Cammack, I agree with your points Bill. The context and appropriateness via the media are a balance to consider along with your audience. Use of your personal media as a broadcast or narrowcast is the choice of the author and their command of that media channel – in this case the result was a failure to consider those guidelines.
@PurpleCar, have you seen google’s drunk email protector? We probably need something like this. The idea is that after a certain time of night (say 10:00 pm.) you have to answer math problems in an allotted time (to verify you’re not drunk) before it will let you send out an email. In theory it will stop you from saying something you might regret. Funny thought.
@Hillary K., YES! Exactly! That’s awesome. Because for the next decade or so, the web will work on the “Once It Is Sent, It’s SENT” rule. Preventative medicine/technology is truly the best solution. We don’t want people to say, threaten someone, then be able to delete the evidence. But it seems prudent to have some built-in design to “wake up” the sender before she sends.
RRrrg. “DO you” not Does You… I edited too quickly. Sorry. Yet another design flaw, I can’t edit my comment! LOL.
Wow great move on FedEX’s part, for such a large company like that it is important to have strong relations with its home town. IMO I don’t think anyone can call themselves a social media professional with it being such a new area of study.Its unfortunate ( but still deserved) that James Andrews was too sure of himself and that came back to haunt him.
As a recent twitter addict I find it, as many others do a, “haven for zombie Social Media ‘experts’”. Despite being a privately owned company that does all of our own marketing work, we were STILL weary of posting our thoughts and conversations to twitter cause it’s a permanent record that’s open to the public.
That being said, his twitter post, unlike most useful twitter posts from non-zombie, non-social-marketing people don’t include silly statements about their bowel movements, what they’re eating, or that they’d rather die than being in Memphis. They’re useful in one way or another.
Memphis is a nice town anyways….
Mr Andrews should not agonize over the response from the oversensitive FEDEX exec. The poor man is striking out at anything, flailing away…. Arthur’s projections are always 97% accurate!
I must say it seems extremely lame to me. It sounds like incredibly insecure thinking. For people that want bland borg like speak, fine object to people having opinions. But I really don’t see why you want to learn about social media if you just want to parrot bland press releases. I would imagine Fed Ex knows how to do that very well already.
It is just silly. Who cares that someone that doesn’t live in your city doesn’t want to? What does that have to do with anything? If they can provide you valuable information great. If they can’t, fine don’t use them. I can’t imagine having such thin skin that I don’t want someone saying anything that our company might object to on their personal web site, Twitter account…
I must say I disagree with the consensus that you really should expect a company to seriously take offense at some insignificant opinion about the town they are in, from a Tweet. Fine if you are desperate for paying customers you need to cater to every crazy whim them might have.
If this guy worked for me and FedEx serious thought this was an issue I would tell them it is not a serious issue. This person has the right to their opinions. I do not think muzzling our employees from having opinions is a good idea. And if you don’t want to do business with us because one of our people doesn’t want to live in your town that is fine with me.
Now if I was desperate for business I might do what these suits want but I sure would be trying to get into a job where we were not so desperate we had to cater to crazy whims of our customers about expressing our opinions on where we wouldn’t like to live. I just don’t see such constraints as a sensible way to live. Others can chose to work with such constraints. That is fine. I don’t mind if other people don’t share my opinions.
Yes there are some limits to what might be objectionable. This is so incredibly far away from even remotely reasonable to object to. It is on par with objecting to them Tweeting I hope Louisville beats Memphis in the basketball game tonight. Sorry if you are going to object to that kind of stuff seriously, I can’t see how we can every communicate your expectations are so ludicrous I can’t imagine what else you will object to.
To me, this is not just about social media tools; it is also a good reminder about common sense human relations principles that aren’t commonly applied.
Dale Carnegie suggested the following in 1936 in chapter one of his best selling book “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, and it applies just as much in 2009 as it did then:
“Don’t criticize, condemn or complain.”
A good reminder from this incident to apply that principle in daily life, including on Twitter, don’t you think?
@davideckoff
This is funny and reminds me a bit of a story from the early nineties. The was a major high street jewelry retailers in the UK called Ratners, a multi-million pound company. The then CEO and owner, Gerald Ratner, made the mistake of publically saying that his products were rubbish and that only people of low intelligence would buy them. Within a short while the 3rd biggest Jewelry company in the UK went into receivership.
To me this story is no different, ill advised words can cost you your business – no matter what the medium used to communicate those words.
… a caveat to us all, to balance honesty with sensitivity.
I work in social media, so I’m posting this anonymously, just in case my company works with FedEx.
I don’t think it was an error in judgement at all. Seriously, you would consider not doing business with someone because he made an offhand comment about how he’d be unhappy with living in the town your business is located in?
I love my city. I absolutely love it. That feeling is not universal. But if someone made a similar comment on Twitter, I wouldn’t fly off the handle and threaten the business relationship over it.
This is a gross overreaction. It wasn’t a criticism of the company, it was a criticism of Memphis. I would have made that post myself and not thought twice about it. In fact, I’d probably say the exact same thing about Las Vegas; if I was using Twitter the last time I went to a trade show there, I probably WOULD have.
I’m with Andrews on this one.
And I’m making sure to ship my stuff UPS.
For a social media expert the chap doesn’t seem all that sociable!?
FedEx recognized that an executive who failed to understand that an anchor company for a city who invests heavily in the city’s well-being would have a problem with a vendor insulting that city, might not be the right fit to create a branding video to represent the company.
Switch it around and have some Memphis Exec mocking Atlanta and you can be sure that Home Depot would have done the same.
Make the city Boston or New York and you wouldn’t stop hearing about it for days in the news. Andrews had the opportunity to respond on Twitter and apologize, even if it was to make some comment about being tired, or meaning he preferred bigger cities.
Instead, he ducked, and you can’t duck when you’re a “key influencer.” You stand up like a man and take your lumps – something he would know if he were raised in Memphis.
Perhaps before judging Mr. Andrews so harshly, folks should read this.
http://funkidivagirl.com/2009/01/james-andrews-hey-thats-my-man-youre-talking-about/
Its very eye opening and gives a better perspective. I could go on, but i think Mrs. Andrew says it best.
I’m appalled at the public embarrassment this FedEx employee has given Mr. Andrews. I LOVE the city I live in and know that everyone would agree; when reading a post like Mr. Andrews gave, that’s an opportunity to show them the better side of your town, and not try to humiliate them.
oops.. meant to say NOT everyone would agree
Yes, but I want to hear Mr. Andrews side, not read typical one-sided PR stuff on his blog and certainly not his wife’s take on it. I have attempted to contact Mr. Andrews by telephone but is not returning my call.
It was a funny and throw away comment, the question is why did Fedex take such great offence? Their headquarters is amidst an area of massive social decline, what have they done to help decrease this decline, probably not a lot, they just prefer to belittle and bully agencies and staff in ways where they can generate stories to be published on the web.
Whoops. Even though I can understand the response, I think it’s a little over the top though.
Indio wrote:
> [..] why did Fedex take such great offence?
Exactly. Apparently Memphis and Mr. Andrews is not a fit. So what? I do not think they hire Mr. Andrews for his opinions about the surroundings.
How about freedom of opinions? It would have been different if he criticized a FedEx employee via Twitter.
Apparently Mr. Andrews failed to deliver a relevant presentation. That’s relevant. Personal opinions on the surroundings not so much.
I’m reading this with great interest as it seems that now it’s more than statements with a political or religious nature that have fallen into the “think twice” category. I’m amazed that people continue to write things with a keyboard and hit send when they wouldn’t hand write the letter, sign, seal and mail to the seemingly same group of people. Sounds like the makings of a great social experiment?
Great blog post David. This will be the definitive case study….. what to be aware of when using twitter and other Social Media sites.
What gets me about this whole saga is how a media company like Ketchum was so slow to react and deal with it but also that Fedex opened the whole point to be discussed online.
@John Beckley,
Thanks to you, John, and the many others who have taken the time to write thoughtful comments. I will continue blogging today about this issue, primarily over the lack of experience big PR has in the online world even though they sell that service to unsuspecting client. I will also have some comment about the “roll-down” effect by Ketchum and FedEx to immediately blame the poor junior account executive.
dh
The trouble is, people regard these twitterings as private, when they aren’t. If you wouldn’t say a town sucks to someone in person, why do it in a twitter, even if you think it? It is possible to have a thought that you DON’T twitter.
In truth, people say banal things on Twitter because of the word limit, and sometimes that leads them to precis what they are saying to the point where an observation becomes an insult. They lose their context.
Add this to the idea that the online persona can be anonymous, even when you know a person’s name, and it’s a recipe for disaster. Blogging and forum posting can go the same way.
In a while, your reputation for being a person of integrity, of measured opinions, honesty and intelligence is going to be a very real commodity. I predict that people will learn fast not to make these mistakes.
Fee/Caliandris Pendragon
David,
Interesting article, but I’ll have to say that if you disagree with what Mr. Andrews did, you were the one that actually goofed! Even in old media, the adage has always been ‘There is no such thing as bad publicity.’ That is even more apparent in today’s new media where individuals (not company’s) vie for ‘followers’ (Twitter) or friends ‘facebook and MySpace).
The free advertising you have given Mr. Andrews by posting his Twitter moniker has probably directed several of your readers (as well as those directed here from news aggregator site) to ‘follow’ Mr. Andrews on Twitter. I know I did. As some caught between both generations of old and new media, I must say, my perspective on all this is that FedEx is a bunch of whiners. Is Mr Andrews not allowed to have an opinion on the eyesore that FedEx so readily admits is the Memphis airport area?
Twitter is built to be an at-the-moment one sentence blurb of what you’re thinking. The younger generations of today (under 30) are already accustomed to this and actually appreciate and demand that a person be honest in their posts. Mr Andrews expressed his feelings about a truly depressed area. Since he’s a visitor, he only reminded FedEx of what they already knew: that area is disgusting. I flew into Memphis last year. I agree with Mr. Andrews.
Seems like he is the expert he claims. He’s going to get a lot of free press for this.
@Ivan, interesting perspective with a lot of truth to it, but client service is still client service. And when your client is a (relatively) old and established company — to whom social media is clearly new — you have to put some governors on what you say on Twitter, etc. You can be true to the spirit of social media and still get your agency fired. A balancing act for sure.
One fewer PR scumbag on Twitter is a good start.
Yeah, the Ketchum guy blew it. What a bonehead. Guess the irony is that he didn’t think anyone was going to read his tweets. Beautiful.
I think the situation here is not that James Andrews made a mistake, but that FedEx (or an individual there) clearly has no understanding of the use of social media. Expressing a personal opinion on a social media network about a city is acceptable.
The act of “following” somebody on a network like Twitter implies an understanding that the tool is used for largely redundant messages. It isn’t intended to be a business tool but has side effects as one.
If Mr Andrews went out one night and got drunk, then Twittered that he had a hangover, that would be an acceptable use of Twitter. If a client then chastised him for drinking too much, that would be an UNacceptable use of Twitter.
Social media requires a different approach to networking, one that accepts that the people using it are human beings, with opinions. Not understanding that should be the first sign that FedEx (or rather this person at FedEx) are not ready to engage with the very different approach the 21st century requires.
Perhaps Fedex wrote too hard and too long to Mr Andrews but the key lessons are nonetheless that one should be careful not only of what one says but how it can be interpreted. I have included this post David in one of mine – verbatim. http://moregspinsights.blogspot.com/2009/01/how-not-to-use-social-media.html
Some times it is wise to think before one posts, Sometimes it is wise to realize we each stand rigid upon the rock that is our own personal paradigm. I remember during National 4-H congress in Memphis the story from Months before ran again in the commercial appeal, it was on animals being altered for show and ethics, that were fuzzy by youth exhibitors. I state this not to rouse a bad image but to be reminded the media trying to influence National congress attendies of their awareness of 4-H did an unthinkable that year they posted a negative article. We see ourselves in our own bubble what we fear is change what we embody often is a local level cocoon of comfort. The remarks were hurtful for in his mind the blogger wasnt able to terra form his paradigm view of Memphis into the rock that he stands upon in Atlanta. (forgive my mispelling Im using a Columbus system of finding a key and landing on it.)
Bummer. A co-worker of mine shared this story saying the guy killed his career in a single Tweet. While I don’t know that he necessarily killed his career, he’s definitely got some pie on his face. I think it’s more funny that people have the nerve to proclaim themselves an “expert” in social media. Congratulations, you know how to register on a website and type a few words. Have a gold star!
Oh, wait… I just did that. I’m a social media expert now!
How did they send such a long reply back on Twitter. I can only put a 140 characters!
I have to say, that having read the story, I think it is Fedex which comes across as a pompous ass. I don’t think it will have done itself many favours, apart from with the people of Memphis.
Wow! What a great job reporting on this, David. Social media is a powerful tool. As they say, you live by social media, you die by social media.
Hopefully Mr. Andrews has learned his lesson.
So, the message is? If you are in the PR business, never say what you think? Even FedEx acknowledged the place was a dump and that “over time” the “hoped” to make it better. What about all the time it took for conditions to get the way they are? Yeah, that time; their track record. What they seem to want it PR to cover the stink and their history. That’s always easier than actually preventing the mess or cleaning it up. Maybe the PR guy has a new career in a reality based profession where responsibility trumps cheer leading.
Meh. He’s probably right about Memphis anyway. Besides, FedEx probably just wrote that letter to create some good PR about the “efforts” they have been making in Memphis. If you know anything about corporate “efforts”, you know it’s usually bogus.
I’m on Fedex’s side on this one. The bubblehead PR clown is perfectly free to say whatever he wants to say, but he doesn’t get to decide how others will react to him. He insulted them, they took offense, that’s how it goes.
-jcr
What an example of the immediacy of social media.
This is a very rare and valuable kind of information that a smart Memphis and FedEx could act on and turn to advantage. Instead they shoot the messenger. That is a huge weakness their competitors may use against them. Smart investors know this too.
But Memphis is really a very dull city, the guy’s right, no matter if FedEx likes the fact or not
Power Owned at the corporate level.
I think everyone has missed Mr. Andrews strategy. Obviously, in order to effectively convey the immediacy and importance of social media to the enterprise, he made the supreme sacrifice of falling upon his own sword to make a perfect example of how dangerous social media can be if not taken seriously.
I think Mr. Andrews proved his point very well, and should be praised for his boldness, personal sacrifice and dedication to his clients.
After all…Social Media is Serious Business.
It’s amazing how someone at that level of communications wouldn’t realize how many followers would be seeing what he was writing and how easily his comments could get back to his own clients. Not just the clients he was about to visit, but ALL his clients, reflecting his attitude of elitism and his own personal image as a marketing professional. Sure, it may have been a moment of weakness, but such moments should never be expressed on line via Social Media using the tools of the profession. There are other places for expressing personal thoughts that may be distasteful to others – like personal voice recorders.
I think he just stubbed his toe however, mom always said “It only takes one to ruin it for the rest of us.” In this case it took one to enlighten the rest of us. Surely he has learned his lesson from this faux pas.
If you have a dull time in Memphis, then you just don’t know where to go… or you’re just a dull person.
He is an expert. Look at all of the free exposure he obtained for himself and FedEx. Both sides are defendable, to some degree, and everyone is talking about both of them. He achieved what it is hard to obtain “wide discussion”. This may run a little deeper than what we are speaking about. FedEx gets to defend their hometown and Andrews is a free speaker who says what is on his mind but is willing to apologize if what he says has hurt someone. Could not have worked better if they had planned it. Makes you think with such an obvious blunder at hand doesn’t it? chuck
FedEx are over reacting.
Furthermore as they state, the staff just received a pay cut – of course they think they can do better than an agency, most likely if they had the time they could – but they don’t, which is why we use agencies…
He made a mistake, but social media is about context – especially twitter. Perhaps he had some terrible personal news at the time? How does FedEx leap to this barriage of judgement?
@Matt,
I couldn’t agree more with Matt. Well said!
I’d call that personal reputation mismanagement
Oh, a tasty irony sandwich. And a reminder to consider the audience before opening your mouth or your keypad. Charly has an interesting point, but I’m not convinced the “no such thing as bad press” maxim applies here. Some might rather have an expert with a level of judgment that didn’t require apologies.
did they fire this guy yet?
@curious, You want to fire a guy for one mistake? Wow, great business sense…
*AWESOME*. I’m going to use Fedex next time I need to send something instead of UPS.
A modern version of the “reply all” email gaf (times a million).
I feel for the guy and the employees, so Mr Andrews here is some advice. When in doubt and you got something really snippy or snide to say use Secret Tweets. People confess stuff their all day.
@Kloche, “oops there not their”
It’s remarkable to me that the majority of commenters here, on Andrews’ blog, and elsewhere miss the real point. FedEx hired Ketchum (and, as an indirect result, Andrews) to provide EXPERT PR advice regarding the use of social media, at what I assume to be substantial cost. The original Tweet represents a colossal FAIL on the part of a Ketchum VP who was in Memphis to speak on use of the very medium in which he demonstrated his lack of expertise. Ketchum’s response (or real lack thereof) further demonstrates their lack of PR savvy. If I were the FedEX executive in charge of this PR relationship as a result of the latter in combination with the former I’d fire them and find a more capable PR firm with which to work.
@Ed, Amen. In my mind, the story isn’t about Andrews and FedEx anymore, but how a major PR firm handled (or didn’t) the situation.
I have to think this client/agency relationship was under a lot of stress. In a good relationship this would probably not even have caused a ripple. Typically when a client reacts so strongly to a seemingly small incident it indicates that trouble has been brewing for awhile. It would behoove the agency to focus on getting to the bottom of what’s really going on with the account.
This is the very reason I’ve avoided the use of some social media such as Twitter where the world – including your customers and colleagues – can read every word you write.
Lately I’ve become more active in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Fluther, etc. This is a great article and a nice reminder of what I’ve been trying to keep at the front of my thoughts – think long and hard before you write.
Although I see the irony in this story, two things stand out to me:
- He’s well within his rights to feel the way he feels about what he saw of the city and the right to say it out loud. Free speech, remember? And I’d be hardpressed to believe that those same FedEx communications people hadn’t uttered something very similar about some place they’ve seen or been to in their lives.
- The FedEx communications staff greatly overreacted to a flip remark that had nothing to do with them as clients. To take offense to something as broad a thing as someone’s feeling about a city is just asinine. Be proud of your city, sure, but there are more important things to worry about from your clients. In fact, I’d be glad he’s using social media that regularly to being with – many of the so-called “social media experts” I’ve dealt with don’t actually use the networks to that degree.
Yes, he made a stupid mistake, but FedEx comes out looking way worse in my eyes. I think a simple, personal “you idiot” comment when he arrived on site would’ve accomplished much more.
Reminds me of a fellow public speaker that told me how she was in Salt Lake City presenting and thought that a Pope joke would go over well. She told the joke to an audience of several hundred and got resounding silence. Turns out there is a very large Catholic population in Salt Lake City. Big oops.
From Stiennon’s tips for public speakers:
If you are speaking south of your home town do not refer to your location as “down here”. The people of Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, do not feel they are “down” anywhere. Same goes for “up here” if you are in Canada or Scandinavia.
Never say “you people” unless you want to completely set yourself apart from your audience.
So let me get this straight?
Fed Ex hired a PR guy…. PR guy makes crude comment about corporations Headquarters’ city(Memphis is a shithole BTW).
Fed Ex goes on the defensive….. gets to make themselves look good…… and gains internet exposure via social networking.
Isnt this exactly what they were paying him to do? And exactly what happened?
It took Ketchum PR folks that long to spin up that weak statement from Marv Gellman? They really need to step outside of their box and get some air – a company is only as strong as it’s weakest link and those links need to know not to bite the hand that feeds ‘em. Can I think of anymore much abused sayings? I think not.
That’s dumb. Flies over to coach them on social media, yet doesn’t consider the fact they might be offended when they see one of his social media profiles. He should take more care.
This is pretty much par for the course with Andrews…Not surprised to see this at all. Unfortunate that Ketchum didnt read the signs on Andrews early on… Hope this didnt cost them business with their pretigious client.
This is ridiculous. He was there for social media…he put on twitter that he disliked the city…so what? A FedEx employee actually responded to it..and cared?
I don’t really have words to explain how stupid this is. There has to be more important things in this world to babble about.
I guess it’s better to keep your mouth shut if you arrive in a shitty city with a big client…because god knows your opinion of the city affects the business relationship in ways you would never know.
People should remove the stick out of their asses…
This goes to show that the age old adage “If you don’t want it to fall in the wrong hands don’t write it down.” is true for everything. You never know who’s going to see what you write, so be careful before you hit send.
People get very cozy on Twitter and assume they know who’s reading. But you never, ever know, so it’s best to err on the side of caution.
I think FedEx is looking for an excuse to cut costs. They admitted it that they cut 5% from everyone’s paycheck. Why not be straight forward and not beat around the bush.
To that end I am torn on whether Andrews should have been used as the scapegoat here. He was on a twitter account that represented the company but he was just asserting a simple opinion. What if he said it out loud in an airport and an “off-duty” FedEx employee were to eaves drop on him saying that. Would he still be in such a position? It is harmless conversation and he never said, for instance, “I’m going to see a dead end company.” He just made a comment about the town. No town is perfect, Vegas, New York, DC, Atlanta, LA, etc. That could have been directed to any city, why did it have to be about Memphis? Also, why did FedEx take such an offense to it? If they are so concerned with the perception of the city, they should have done something about it before it became the way it is to give someone that impression. But they are not in the position of PR for Memphis, they are in the business of package transportation.
Also, to make FedEx’s side more legitimate, they could have mentioned how many people in their workforce volunteer in their communities to fight against that perception as well.
Really, this shouldn’t have gone as far as it did.
You know, there is no context in which he made his statement about not wanting to live where he was located. I think our sensitivity has been turned way to far up where everything become offensive. Did he not like the weather? Food? Town’s culture? All I hear is “being offensive” here and not about “forgiveness” and “moving on” with slip ups. You mean to tell me that you have not had a bad day or are thinking off the top of your head? Sheessh.
I agree. So many people/agencies are claiming to be “social media experts”, but even those of us who have been working in the area for the last few years admit we don’t have all the answers. This situation exemplifies the arrogance and overconfidence of most of these kinds of firms.
Isn’t this why social media has taken off? The off-the-cuff remarks make it differ from traditional media and certainly make it more intriguing. Hilarious, as long as it’s not happening to me.
Odd, I met James Andrews at BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas last year – found him a very nice chap, friendly, open, intelligent, but I guess it makes some people’s day to be able to demonize someone for a mistake (what was that I learnt once about casting the first stone?)
On a lighter note, @Stiennon what I find equally mystifying and hilarious is when fellow Australians refer to what I call Here as “Downunder” – ah, the cultural power of the Northern Hemisphere!
The thing is that nobody should be coaching anybody. Everyone’s new to social media, and we’re all participants to a greater or lesser degree, active or passive.
These truths are self-evident:
1) Mr. Andrews works for a PR firm.
2) Mr. Andrews is an expert in the Social Media field.
Given the facts, Mr. Andrews made a grave and egregious error that is compounded by his career and employer.
What advice would his firm give Mr. Andrews, were he their client? Just wondering.
@Octavio,
Good question. I have no idea. Ketchum has remained mum as has Andrews.
@DH, you’re right; great question. Personally, I would advice Mr. Andrews to come clean and admit he completely blew it. Find a way to sentence himself to some “community service,” by making a personal donation to a great cause in Memphis, or finding a way to contribute in some other way to the city.
He’s going to have to accept with a humble smile the fact that he’s going to be remembered for this for quite a time to come. His best hope for rising above it? Create a better story about what a great recovery he made.
Sorry… posting in a hurry. I would advise, not advice!
this is funny, but its retarded that he should get reprimanded for it. Memphis does suck in my opinion, and its just an opinion why should anyone care, it doesnt mean he or me is right.
As another person who’s been to Memphis, even the touristy areas aren’t that nice outside of the new basketball arena (named after FedEx I think) and the Gibson factory (which was an awesome tour). Otherwise it is a very poor area. When you drive in from the airport you visibly see bombed out neighborhoods from the highway. It reminded me a lot of Detroit in some ways.
As for his job, this becomes the perfect example of the power of social media, so maybe he knows what he’s talking about. I think FedEx’s response was meant for his bosses and not general consumption. Don’t be so offended for basing yourself out of an affordable city for cost of living. But don’t play it up as something wonderful.
I believe FedEx should take their head out their ass and take a chill pill. So a PR guy made a small mistake by tweeting about a member’s of the exec team’s hometown. It’s just a personal opinion; not a press release, not an official statement, etc. It only shows how far FedEx is from the reality and value provided by Twitter or social media in general.
Simply because someone’s opinion is that one town is inferior for another, does not warrant an entire PR firestorm over it. Instead, FedEx should have openly offered to point out some of the better attractions of Memphis, TN; possibly remind that Memphis was home to a visionary of FedEx … not blow a gasket and threaten to pull a PR contract.
And this is coming from someone who generally dislikes the ‘PR folk’. I give Andrews credit for speaking his mind, openly even if he later regretted it because of the embarrassment of his client.
–Joe
@Joe Manna,
But, and this is a main point, Andrews has chosen not to speak openly. For someone who claims to be a social media consultant, he might practice what he preaches.
Well, you heve to admit he did illustrate a key point about how — and how not — to us social media.
A guy called Jeff F comments on this on Chris Brogan’s blog – here’s what Jeff suggests:
One theory that me and my colleagues talked about was entertaining the idea that this whole “blow up” was in fact the strategy that Andrews and FedEx was hoping for.
Think about it. Andrews’ main goal is to generate good publicity for his client, FedEX. I think it mentioned somewhere that his company is getting paid millions to do so. ANd if he is a social media professional, he could definitely have predicted or hoped that such an outrage and buzz would be generated by all the top “social media” and “PR” blogs. The response by FedEX seems to really be highlighting how great and noble they are, and how much they love Memphis. And also, because of this buzz, Andrews is getting way more publicity himself, it is bad, but he is getting a lot more followers on twitter, and he will be continued to be monitored in his reactions from now until almost forever. This whole thing really makes FedEx look like the most noble, hard working, and community conscious company ever existing, and who knows, maybe Andrews took one for the team in order to give his client a HUGE publicity boost. No one really will ever know I guess.
In Andrews’ tweet, he doesn’t even mention Memphis. He just says “one of those towns.” That could be anywhere. People have the right to not like certain cities. It all seems sort of fishy to me.
Hmmmmmm ……..
@Gillian,
My gosh, you may be on to something …
David
@David Henderson, I thought it was worth sharing. This is certainly bringing in the comments ! Wonder if our Mr Andrews reads other blogs ?? Maybe you should invite him to do an exclusive interview on your blog ?????
@Gillian,
Gillian,
To be honest, I am past the point of wanting to deal with Mr. Andrews. He’s said “no” enough so clearly he does not believe in conversation, just expressing his own view, uncensored, on his blog.
Thanks for the idea, though.
@Gillian,
I initially thought about this potential angle as well while reading this story.
Could a PR ‘pro’ really be this stupid?
I mean geeez….
He’s on his way to the client to give a special presentation; Tweets something that is as potentially insulting about the client’s own “back yard”; that then develops a life of it’s own mainly due the supportive nature of the client of their own back-yard.
But despite my love of a well executed business strategy, not to mention a good conspiracy theory, in the end I kept coming back to a soft-drink….
“New Coke”. (Yeah, the one from the mid 80′s that led to a ‘seeming’ PR debacle for the company at the time. And yet a ‘debacle’ that gave the company hundreds of millions in free publicity and brought out defenders of the brand from under the woodwork.)
When Coke finally relented and brought back the original recipe, some curious reporters asked if “New Coke” was just a VERY clever publicity strategy to re-invigorate the brand and outflank Pepsi on both the supermarket shelves and in the hearts and minds of the consumer.
Coke’s then President Keogh simply said, “We’re not that dumb, and we’re not that smart…”
On deep reflection, I suspect the same is the case here. (Though my god I’d so love to be proven wrong!
) )
I’m surprised that FedEx Corporate Comms personnel have the time and inclination to craft essays like this in response to one – yes one – text message from one person who works at one of their agencies.
FedEx Corp Comms ‘spokesperson’: get over yourself and the whole client / agency power trip nonsense.
FedEx, I find it remarkable that you authorised this kind of overblown response without realising that it would depict your company as being pompous, petty, slightly paranoid and self-important.
Thankyou for a well-researched and thoughtful article. Looking at the responses I’m impressed with the level of debate. A couple of the responses, however, suggest I might be able to add something.
1. Freedom of Speech versus Influencing. The context is everything. Influence requires building rapport and credibility. For rapport I try not to start my presentations with something like “OMG I’ve just stepped off the plane and standing here I just want to step back on”. If I can’t say “it’s a pleasure to be here” I can always say “I feel privileged to be invited here”. So why is this relevant in this case? Credibility. The instructor stepped off the plane as a high-priced expert on social media. The waiting crowd following his every tweet to see what they could learn as he prepared to engage a key client. What they learnt set up an immediate barrier where every miss-step eroded the presentation – even if it had been perfect they couldn’t see it.
2. Audience is context. If you have a professional or business role, broadcast is broadcast. Is it fair that a student teacher is sacked because her Facebook profile shows her drinking beer? The outcome is she was sacked – fair or not.
3. Community isn’t just Twitter. The tweet sped through Fedex so fast it could have been an advertisement. Is Fedex defensive? A Company that could be based anywhere but has taken a strong supportive approach to the local community as a deliberate policy, has the same ethic imbedded in its staff at all levels, can expect any consultant dealing with the organisation to understand that and sees this as the very first communication in the social media education lesson? Personally I find the Fedex stance ethical, consistent and responsible. Community exists in the real world too.
4. The trap of being an expert. I know this one, unfortunately from experience. There will be bright people in almost every organisation that know almost as much. Don’t assume they can’t find your info stream.
5. Will we learn from this? Only if we accept this was a mistake and learn from it. The outcome is a major client is offended and may be lost, and the media firm loses credibility. We can rush to the consultant’s defence – client needs a chill pill, observation was correct, who cares, etc. but the outcome is real, and really bad. In my experience (sadly it is experience) “going to ground” only makes it worse. The only way is to keep communicating, and even use the experience as a real-life example. Many clients are looking for the authentic voice of experience even though experience means the odd mistake has to be acknowledged.
Call me an elitist New Yorker now living in LA, but I’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the two cities…just switch all the Peachtree street signs with Elvis street signs and they’re identical! Oh, also might want to switch the Coke and Fedex signs.
But it IS amazing how much company time (= $) was wasted by the Fedex Corp Comm person responding to what was basically an innocuous, probably boredom-induced statement. I mean, after you’ve seen Graceland, eaten some BBQ and given a presentation to Fedex on the “benefits” of social networking…you’re pretty much done.
Still, Andrews should have been immediately fired and possibly deported even if he’s a US citizen….not for the twitter comment, but for the following reasons:
1. wasting people’s time with presentations about how social media will change their lives 2. for his stupid, cheesy “@keyinfluencer” twit name.
3. for thinking that there is actually a difference between Atlanta and Memphis.
David,
Once again you are proving to be one of my most indispensable and relevant sources of breaking news and important information.
I am in constant search mode for case studies, proof, and stories that support social media as the powerful trend that it is becoming.
This is a reminder, of the old adage, that what you say or write on the internet can come back to haunt you. The difference is today it can come back to haunt you in a split second rather than in days.
How completely surprising is it to see a VP level executive who is a social media “consultant” fall victim to his own ignorance? Not very when people allow their title and equally inflated ego’s step between them and better judgment.
No matter how advanced communications become in this world, the X factor will always be how important we think we are, how rooted we are in reality, and how long it takes for that reality to crash into our misguided perceptions of self.
In the spirit of sharing perhaps I can explain why the Fedex response was seen as an appropriate use of Company resources and why, if you get such a note from a corporate or Government client, it should not be dismissed as a personal opinion or a minor matter.
1. Surface reasons. The local community and support for it is an official position of the company. If they are your client, you should know that and at least be circumspect. Remember this tweet was sent by @keyinfluencer trading on their social media expertise to their followers, not a private citizen just before the presentation.
2. Implications. I do not speak for Fedex and can only state how I would react to the communication. I do not purport to represent that my reaction is the message that Fedex intended to convey. However, what I would note is:
*The client is not happy with the outcome (ROI) of the expenditure for the day.
*The client has identified a directly relevant behaviour that seems to contradict the claimed expertise.
*The client is going through a major cost cutting and efficiency exercise.
*Ending the supplier contract and insourcing services would provide a handy way of cutting costs at a single stroke, and reducing staff cuts so that the money can be spent in a City that even the suppliers consultant thinks would benefit.
*Even if the contract continues staff have undergone a 10% cut in pay – and that’s for people we like and want to keep. You are currently outside that category. Does this give you any ideas?
The client has identified an unsatisfactory outcome, a belief that value for money was not achieved and a specific behaviour that seems incompatible with the claimed expertise. They have identified an interest in cutting costs. They have put it in writing. It is naive in the extreme to treat a situation like this as anything less than full crisis management. Before negotiations have even begun the playing field has been tilted and then super-glued in place. Fedex is a serious player facing serious problems and looking for real expertise. 2009 is not the time for casually waltzing into clients. Competition ballroom dancers learn to enter and exit as professionally as everything else about their act. We need to exit and enter professionally too.
Well it just goes to show the real power of social media. It can serve you well if you use it well or it can bring about your demise if you don’t use it conscientiously.
Some people may forget that the “social” in social media means people interaction and not computers and machines. As such, how would one person relate to another face to face?
This comes out looking really bad on FedEx, it shows they have poor communication skills and are a little too quick on the trigger.
No-where in that twitter post does it reference anything about FedEx. Now I could understand if the twitter post actually referred to FedEx and made a direct comment, but people are free to have their opinions.
I for one, will not be using FedEx anymore.
I find it ironic that Fedex is cutting employee salaries at the same time they’re spending money on social media consultants! They sure put the “twit” in twitter!
But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe fedex has a good reason to train their people on time-wasting “social media” such as twitter. Let’s try an experiment using twitter’s 140 character limit to see why fedex might want their employees twittering. Let’s say fedex wants to send an urgent message out to its employees on a Friday evening after a tough week making 5% less than they used to:
A twit from “CEOFedExNeedsBonus”
“You’re fired. Sending personal crap on your desk to your house.”
Yup. Our experiment worked…it all fits within the 140 character limit. So I was wrong…fedex can use social media to get rid of some of those 5% less paid employees much more efficiently than the old way! Don’t even need to have security standing around looking vaguely threatening since they’re missing their donut break.
I now understand the beauty of social media. I’m now looking forward to getting to know even more twits.
I can’t believe all the apologists for this guy’s IDIOTIC comment! A man who is a PR person for a major firm, who is a social media EXPERT and who has an account on Twitter, should know that his every comment is being followed.
Indeed, he welcomes people following him, and was on the way to a city where at least one was following him.
If he wanted to speak about a person making an intolerant remark, he should have said that. But that’s not what he said, CLEARLY. 140 characters is not a lot, but anyone should be able to post TWO 140-character posts and give proper context. So his explanation is a FAIL.
Sorry, folks, you don’t get to insult an entire city on a blog, twitter account or even in an email, and then claim YOU are the victim when you’re forced to back away from your inappropriate comments.
He essentially said “This city sucks. Glad I don’t have to live here.” This is an OUTRAGEOUS thing for a PR professional to say, especially if he’s there to meet with clients on behalf of his company. Outrageous. Where is the shame from him and the posters here defending him?
For someone to say that FedEx over-reacted is just plain silly. Companies often do overreact, and sometimes that’s unfortunate and as inappropriate as the original incident.
But when you make it widely known on your blog or twitter account that you’re affiliated with a company (Ketchum AND FedEx in this case) you MUST watch what you say – even “after hours.”
If he wants to express his freedom to attack a town, city or even an entire group of people, Mr. Andrews can certainly quit his job and do PR for himself.
But let’s not pretend there exists an Absolute Right to express oneself, without consequences. Someone with such an obvious lack of verbal self-control should be schooled in that truism before stepping into social media OR public relations.
Being a native Memphian and owning a PR firm based in DC with an office in Memphis I am not at all suprised with the reaction by FedEx. I personally would have said something similar. The Tweet was an extrememly ignorant commentary on a subject Mr. Andrews knows very little about, Memphis. Hilton Hotels yesterday announced that they are relocating their Hilton Garden Inn corporate staff to Memphis from Beverly Hills. Delta Airlines is considering moving a significant portion of the airline’s flights from Atlanta to the smaller Memphis hub also announced in the past week. Why are these facts relevant? These large corporations would not consider such moves until first taking into consideration the “livability” of Memphis. This situation is the same to me as someone posting a picture drinking alcohol in their Facebook account. It’s just not smart. For someone who is an expert regarding social media it’s just plain dumb. As a PR professional you are supposed to be the expert, the person that counsels clients effectively to build both their their brand and image. One snafu can ruin your reputation as I expect it has done in this case. Mr. Andrews has been at Ketchum for about one year. I for one expect him to not to be there another.
You posted this on Jan 21? Seven days after the original Twitter comment (which does NOT mention Memphis). Five Days after James Andrews posted his side of the story? Without including a link to his side of the story?
You couldn’t “reach” Andrews? How much reach do you need? I found his blog.
http://www.thekeyinfluencer.com/channel/2009/01/16/twittersituation/
I read more on the web by the 19th than your story includes.
This post is irresponsible. It fans a fire that has already been extinguished. This story is old old news… and incomplete.
Vicki,
I would invite you to read my two blog postings again. “Reaching” someone is not reading their one-sided blog posting but rather having a conversation. Let me ask you … where did you get your news today? By reading a paper newspaper or online? I suspect the latter. Online is the new media but, as the story indicates, it is a new world that demands openness, transparency and conversation. Otherwise, settle for news from places in the world where news is filtered, censored and restricted, like Mr. Andrews’ blog … a one-sided perspective, at best.
Thanks for a very objective and factual report about this story. It all goes back to basics…if you would not say it in front of someone, don’t say it behind their back…or on Twitter. Just common sense.
This seems to be the typical case where a big client demands complete subservience. Andrews was making a personal comment on a city not on Fed Ex. Response from Fed Ex is nothing but personal. Many people coming to work in Asia from US or Europe make such comments all the time but nobody seems to take notice. Moral of the story – in times of recession love your client and love her dog too!!.
@Raj Kohli, Absolutely agree, big clients should be ashamed of themselves. And if they had the nerve to call him on it, they should have done it face to face, not through a chicken shit email.
Ahh, another place where you are no longer allowed to say what you think in case it offends someone, just what we needed.
Hey David..
Examples like this are absolutely priceless!! It’s wonderful to hear about suppose “Social Media Experts” – unable to properly use Social Media.. Personally, the shame is not that they made the comment, but that they didn’t turn it into a public discussion, to highlight FedEx, and the lost opportunity this gaffe presented, in demonstrating some of the great stuff that they had to offer for the local community… I bet his twittering has probably toned down, as a consequence, which is a real shame.. Since it’s healthy to have an opinion, and then be able to have discussions with people around that opinion if it offends..
It would be a crying shame, if because of this, people started to hold back on their tweeting, and try to be all politically correct..
I guess when you’re a big firm, and you make such mistakes, if you act out of fear, you stay silent, and don’t respond – but if you can engage in frank open discussions, then you’ll be able to really be in your integrity, and people will respect you even more
It’s all about the mindset.
Social media are emerging in a time where relations are key. Befriend your customer, one to one relations.
If I were to meet my very good friends at FedEx, and I personally never would live in Memphis, I would think a lot about what they see or know that I don’t.
This thought would come natural to me in any caring relation.
We were all raised, though, in a world where we learned that work/business is a whole different thing than private life. We are pretenders trying to sell the idea of compassion.
It’s hard to be perfect – and we don’t know yet if social media is of sustainable interest in business relations.
Alistair,
Very well stated. This all seems to be a ‘Duh, why would anyone be so clueless’ situation until one realizes that people do it everyday when they tell inappropriate jokes, stories or comments because they are in a ‘safe’ environment. Even though we are all guilty of having said the wrong thing at the wrong time, very few people are forgiving when another does it.
It’s a great example to teach us all that just because we think something doesn’t mean we need to state it.
Charles Gupton
“Real people. Really well.”
http://www.charlesguptonphoto.com
On Twitter @ http://twitter.com/CharlesGupton
Blog: http://charlesgupton.wordpress.com
He’s right though: Memphis is a shithole.
I was actually very impressed by the spirit behind Fedex’s response. At a time when we are very concerned about top heavy corporations, it’s nice to hear that a corporation is loyal not only to its employees but also to its bricks and mortar community (their home). That implies they hopefully will inhabit the virtual community with the same sense of responsibility and community. While the tweeter may have had his reasons and hopefully has apologized, learned, and moved on (while the whole world is watching) I think Fedex actually responded with a very interesting take on the “community” that fuels social media and our role in it.
Lots of great comments here – but most of the *extreme* comments fall into two camps:
1. FedEx are being corporate assholes for conflating a personal statement into a business relationship issue
2. Andrews was an asshole for his ill-advised and inaccurate twitter, exacerbated by his subsequent lame excuses.
I’m a consultant – so I can feel for Mr Andrews. I travel a lot, and quite often find myself at the mercy of local waitstaff who simply see a corporate account, hear a non-local accent, and think they can get away with poor service.
But, as a consultant, I am very aware of the golden rule of consulting: CYA.
You DON’T piss all over your clients. And you certainly don’t piss all over your clients’ predilections – whatever they may be! Even (especially) when we’re trying to change a client – we need to be extremely sensitive to their perception of everything we do. That includes being mean about their hometown, their local NFL franchise, their corporate vision, or whatever it may be.
Mr Andrews failed to follow the Golden Rule. There were lots of things he *could* have said, that would not have irked his client, yet still conveyed his ‘anger at the local idiot’.
The other thread that seems to have been forgotten, is that Mr Andrews was there as *the* expert on Social Media. He made a presentation to a large group of FedEx staff (which was apparently poorly received). Those staff were already ‘fragile’ having accepted a 5% pay cut – but also much more engaged with FedEx & Memphis – since the company *could* have easily fired a boatload of people instead.
His twitter, along with his poor presentation, (and perhaps his in-person presence) was therefore taken as a whole, and that whole was both disrespectful to Memphis and to FedEx.
lol – that was their statement? Sounds like a robot talking. Not authentic at all.
Hope people understand this situation is not a reason to fear the social technologies.
Open discussion forum is not a license for anybody to be disrespectful.
If a person is disrespectful, sometimes it is a mistake, many times it reflects their true nature. And we all do choose who to do business with people we like!
Did anyone think that could’ve been only a personal opinion? Maybe guy has this right. He said HE would die if he had to live there. Not everybody. Much ado about nothing.
…but enough about the big Twitter faux pas. How’d you make the cool moving tag cloud?
@Ruth Fleet,
LOL … it’s a plugin for WordPress blogs called, WP-Cumulus.
dh
Time to sell Fedex shares. Petulant arrogance on this scale is a sure sign of a management more concerned with their egos than their product.
@Peter Kolding, I’m selling mine as well, What a bunch of arrogant bastards at FedEx. They don’t even have the balls to discuss the matter face to face, they hide behind email.
As someone who was laid-off from a Fortune 50 corporate TV production department, and won awards before being so, whoever wrote this gem below nailed the essence of “Peak PR” big-time:
‘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.’
Never underestimate management’s ability to waste shareholder dollar/value on frilly, expensive, splashy media fluff ‘n nonsense.
While a lack of transparency in any aspect of business is troubling, it’s not all that surprising in the world of PR. The industry, in many cases, prospers from reshaping the truth to make it appear like something else. “Spin” is biased by definition, and more often than not, disingenuous.
Mr. Andrews has no business speaking on the use of social media, period.
The game is new, the rules are still being forged. Being flippant in a forum you engaging in and thru is dangerous. The tweet was an ill thought out mistake, the lack of handling it [and from this post we don't know all the facts so i'm working on some assumptions] quickly and openly is more troubling issue.
Ketchum’s brand is the one that comes away tarnished.
Twitter especially and scocial media in general is still the wild wild west we’ll all learning on the run.
http://twitter.com/ScottKilmartin
http://twitter.com/haul
This is priceless, and very representative of the disdain some elitist types have for “flyover country.”
Wow, and we are taught that any publicity is better than no publicity at all… Not in this case apparently.
Richard Ackermann
REAL TIME LLC
Information Technology Consulting
http://www.realtimeshoppingmall.com
Give me a break… Social media should be MORE like what the guy posted, not less!
The point of social media is to wrestle control of the boring, lame, worthless corporate “message” from all of you PR flacks and flunkies!
Face it… Memphis is a craptacular urban pit. Great music scene… Some amazing examples of meth production and a hot-bed for hookers of the toothless variety, but beyond that… Just because Fred never moved doesn’t make it any less of a hole.
Now, the real issue is that PR is all about diluting messages down to a boring gray pablum that has no risk of pissing anyone off where social media is about giving a potentially equal-height soapbox to any blowhard that wants to rant at 2:00am after too many sake-bombs.
That’s what generates conversation!
That gave Mr. Fed-Ex man a chance to talk about the work being done to revitalize the area etc. that no one here I’m willing to bet would have ever heard about. It gives FedEx a chance to talk about their beliefs, etc.
Face it… no matter what you do 1/2 the people are going to hate you for it if you are honest. Of course it seems that PR today would rather have 10% agree, 10% disagree, and the other 80% yawn and move on.
Screw that! If you can get 30-50% of the people paying attention and not hating you, who cares if the other 70%-50% hate you? ESPECIALLY IF YOU’RE BEING HONEST AND GENUINE!
You all make it seem like Andrews made a mistake for posting his honest opinion!!! ALL OF YOU that are having seizures about this are the problem, not him!
HOLY CRAP!!! A person posted his honest opinion on line! OH MY GOD! And to make it worse he works in PR!!! He should know better than to tell the truth!
God FORBID someone that works in PR is HONEST!
The world needs more Andrews, not less.
The only mistake he made was back-peddling.
If FedEx is that thin skinned about where their headquarters is located then F ‘em.
Don’t get me wrong… I’m not Saying Ketchum and the rest of those viper-nests of empty suits and know-nothings are worth two shakes in the men’s room, but jeesh, this alarming moral OUTRAGE is pathetic…
Now if you want to talk about Mr. Andrews GOD-AWFUL flash-ridden website, for that he should be forced to sit though 2 years of Ketchum Powerpoints… Holy crap dude… Standards!?!
@Monkeyfarmer,
Thank you for your comments.
Thanks for the journalism. On a blog. Great combo of worlds. And I think this is a major point I take from this situation is that all published content is public … eventually, somehow. I’m not a fan of “personal facebook profiles” and “professional facebook profiles,” for example. I find the value is in learning how to live in a tighter, more-connected, deeply networked and integrated society. And to be able to do this with an expression that is genuine and engaging, and concurrently civil and cognizant of the fact that all material may cross over from personal to professional and back. That’s not so much a call to blandness and quelling expression, but finding the way to be in a public and open world.
Ain’t sayin’ it’s easy. Am sayin’ it’s a basic life skill set that, as I see things, is only growing.
Great post – digg and reddit worthy…
@Dale Sackrider, II,
Hope you do it. Thanks for stopping by.
This is almost as bad as the high school kids who have thought they would look cool to their friends by posting pics of themselves while drinking alcohol or smoking illegal substances – busted. iI am learning the key to social media is to be, well, sociable.
Absolutely brilliant post–and excellent reporting–I think it’s critical that once people get past the point of “what’s Twitter?” and plunge in, they remember messages are as out there as anything else on the interwebs. I’m attaching this post to my website for local newsies, many of whom are still struggling to grasp the social media revolution that dramatically changing the way many stations do news and engage with consumers.
Thanks again,
Mark
I’m with monkeyfarmer. Social media should be more real, not more sterile.
So a guy doesn’t like Memphis. Big whoop. I would have thought the folks at FedEx would be so busy DOING THEIR JOBS at work they wouldn’t have time to be in a buzz about some guy who stepped off the plane and was unimpressed. Are they really that insecure about their city? Sheesh!
He did not say, “I don’t like FedEx.” He did not say, “FedEx is a bunch of idiots and I’m about to overcharge them.” He just shared an opinion about a city–an opinion which even FedEx shares to some degree (as they admit it’s shortcomings).
FedEx should be embarrassed, not Ketchum. If I had such sissies working for me, I’d be concerned about their fragility.
Judge a contractor for his work, not his opinion on your city, or politics, or religion.
As I read all of these posts about the do’s and don’ts of social networking, all I can think of is my sainted mother’s old fashion comment on social graces, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” I guess that leads to my question. Should the new adage be, “If you can’t tweet something nice, don’t tweet at all”?
I’m really amazed by this story. And also surprised that of all knowledgable and obviously very experienced PR professionals that have posted comments, nobody has brought the issue of how the FedEx e-mail went public and why. In my perspective that is the piece that really set the detonation for this jem of a case study.
Let me present my perspective (the facts I’ve gathered from this blog and some others about the topic)
1) I think twitter is a marvelous new form of communication, still to find its place in the digital and social landscape, but I agree with the crowd that supports freedom of speech and ‘authenticity’. My personal opinion is that Mr. Andrew could have been more thoughtful had he imagined the potential consequences (I wouldn’t have either, BTW). To date he has 1.688 followers and I don`t really think that accounts for “public statement” or “potential public exposure”. His comment was personal opinion and thus absolutely acceptable and as a twitter user I know you most often feel like you’re amongst friends and ‘in confidence’
2) FedEx gave a typical corporate response, addressed (I gather) to Mr. Andrews and his bosses (that’s what I’d do) expressing their concern and disaproval of his twit and making the points relevant to their business relationship (salary cuts -somethign I wouldn’t put in a PR statemen-, missed expectations and dissagreements in service pricing).
Now all this discussion about the intensity, appropriateness, hardness of arses and so on is the result of a PRIVATE communication between Client and Agency that went public. THAT is the PR issue. Who, and why made this public? If this letter were a public statement from FedEx I’d label it an absolut overstatement, beside the fact that there is no point in FedEx wanting this mistake (on their eyes, not in everybody’s opinion) from their agency going public.
The theory that this is all a ‘disruptive 2.0 strategy’ doesn’t fly and in any case it backfired because I have read several people saying they won`t use fedex anymore and demeaning the company’s management and corporate communications team, in general a more negative than positive public perception.
3- I think KETCHUM should have made a better job at managing their own PR by now
So David I think it is important to the story to find out who gave the order to leak the e-mail and whith what intention.
On another train of thought, it is amazing how people differ in their perspectives, how quick some are at attacking either side or defending them, how others (like me) ramble and analyze. THIS is social media, and that’s what I love about it, and this is also what we must observe to try and get a better grasp at how to benefit our organizations from it.
Thanks for the post, you’ve gained a new faithful reader.
Leonardo Rodriguez
@leorodriguez.com (twitter)
Caracas, Venezuela
Strange how presence of mind just escapes people at the most in-opportune times. Perhaps more upsetting than Andrew’s initial observation of the city was his/the company’s silence in replying. Saying your sorry shouldn’t be that difficult if you actually are.
I read about this situation when it first happened and thought it was very interesting. It opened up a lot of questions. How transparent can we be in social media when dealing with other businesses? Is it the responsibility of those who are familiar with social media to censor what we say until businesses understand the value of being human in communications? Are traditional business people oversensitive to petty comments?
It will be very interesting to see other situations that will inevitably come about when people trying to be transparent online clash with those who are still concerned with upholding an image that they’ve created for themselves.
I’ve discussed it here: http://davidspinks.com/2009/01/17/how-human-should-you-be/
Having read the account of this story, I’m left thinking the folks at Fedex need to relax and breath deeply. Andrews didn’t say where he was. Maybe Memphis is a crappy town. Maybe it’s not. Clearly, it’s a mater of opinion…and everyone should show some respect, not just Andrews.
What rational busines person would can a contract – in either direction – based on something as incredibly trivial as this?
Ok, the bottom line in social media – as in ANY social situation – is hat if you haven’t got anything nice to say, then either find someting or say nothing. You never know who is listening.
At the same time, the Fedex folks were terribly thin-skinned. So what if Andrews doesn’t like Memphis? Who cares?
I wouldn’t.
If you are reading this then why aren’t you working which is what you’re being PAID to do!!!!!! NOT wasting time doing “Your Own thing” in works time…
This makes for a great case study. My questions this morning are about context:
1. What would have been the response if the tweet came from their largest client instead of a vendor?
2. What if the tweet came while on vacation instead of on the client’s dime?
3. How do B2B relationships differ from B2C relationships?
4. What expectations should a client have regarding a vendor’s staff participating in any public communication program?
5. How would this scenario have played out in a different industry? say a patent lawyer tweeting about a client’s product
6. If the tweet were from an executive coming to speak about upgrading the inventory management system, would it be different?
Talk about putting your foot in your mouth and putting and enormous piece of business at risk. Well written and a lesson to live by.
he could have been in any number of America’s corporate headquarters towns. Perhaps he should have made a note to corporate to get to pitch Memphis’s PR account. Still, the reality is the reality, small city vs international city and living in either, the imagination of is worse then the experience. Still it was stupid to make a comment, better to ask a question, keep asking questions, they will never fault you for it. And for FedEx, insular as most big corporations are, they should look at what this means for all of those in Memphis. As what an outsider and a vendor honestly thought. Right or wrong his opinion is an opinion. Instread they bodyslam the guy. Well, there are a lot more people who probably don’t want to live in Memphis then do and why is that? How can it affect FedEx corporate recruiting, both for the positive and the negative. I live Memphis, the BBQ is great. I would gain probably 20+ pounds or more. Would get to listen to a whole lot of good music and probably leave town after any extended stay both more over weight and probably either pre or full blown diabetic.
What I love about this is how Andrew saying something stupid and lets face it human, led to an enormous amount of meaningless corporate speak. Clearly both companies have a lot to learn about human conversations.
while presenting a power point presentation two months ago i was informed after my 55 minute sppech that ther was a piece of toilet paper dangling out of my zipper
I’d be curious to learn how FedEx responded to Andrew from Ketchum. They certainly didn’t reply to him on Twitter, there’s a 140 character minimum and the rant (yes rant) from FedEx goes way beyond that limit. I think this story smacks of ridiculousness…FedEx hired Ketchum for industry expertise, not love of Memphis, correct? Let’s try not to get our panties twisted over stuff that really doesn’t matter…
i wouldn’t fire him without meeting with him 1:1 first. if he showed any sense of understanding about how bad he screwed up, i’d keep him. if however he did not think that he did anything wrong, i’d show him the door.
Does anyone think this may have been engineered? Perhaps there’s no irony in him visiting them to brief them on social media?
I think FedEx over reacted. It was obviously from an older generation of FedEx executives that can’t handle open conversation. The appropriate response would have been an intelligent rebuttal on twitter that defended Memphis and made Andrews look like a critical grump. Instead, fedEx has to make a mountain out of something so small just to push their “I’m paying you a lot of money” weight around. Sounds like a client that isn’t worth the trouble.
Leonardo,
I agree. The whole public incident was caused, in my opinion, by the lack of reasonable controls within FedEx over employees speaking out in public in ways that audiences presume they are speaking for the company. It is simply poor/lack of communications policy, and that has escalated and fed the rumor-hungry online world.
Great article – the irony is great. Also great word cloud for Topics…
Holding your client and its values in contempt. Normal.
The client bothering to be reading about your stupid life. Unusual.
Dissing your client’s hometown in public? Priceless.
You didn’t know that before now??
Sorry, thought the reply would be in sequence: was answering reddit.com/Jan 21.
Sure, it was a boneheaded move.
But damn!, Memphis *is* a silly place.
Mr. Henderson – This is my first visit to your site, and this post was quite provocative–but from a different angle than what you might expect. As I read your posting, I found myself less concerned with Mr. Andrew’s actions and more intrigued with your pursuit of the story. Forgive me if this information is elsewhere (or point me to the right page!), but I’m interested in your thoughts on the following questions.
–You developed this story by drawing on the newsgathering skills that you developed as a journalist, but it seems that you currently draw revenue from the communications consulting sphere–not unlike Ketchum. How do you balance those interests? Couldn’t they be seen as competing, particularly as you report on the same subject matter expertise that you sell?
–You note the difference in responses from FedEx and Ketchum and chastise Ketchum for their delayed response, noting that “from a journalist’s perspective…this lack of transparency and openness is troubling.” But are truly you functioning as a journalist in this role?
–Should Ketchum be obligated to offer transparency and openness on what might actually be classified as a client relations or personnel issue? What are the standards these days, particularly on issues that don’t directly impact the general public, taxpayers, shareholders, etc? How are companies tackling that issue?
–You’re independent–not currently active in a traditional news organization or a online journalistic venture such as HuffPo. How should corporate comms best prepare themselves to respond to bloggers? I would suspect that most don’t have a plan (or the resources) to provide interviews to every independently publishing individual. How should a company assess each conversation to determine an appropriate response?
Thanks in advance for giving these questions your consideration. Again, you’ve opened up some really interesting lines of thinking.
Andrews unintentionally tossed himself under the bus for his client. It’s too bad that it was not planned as such but never-the-less, his actions set the stage for his client to look like gold.
Making your client look like a hero is generally a win in the PR game. The Fedex’s employee’s response to Andrews’ comment as well as their communications department’s response have done just that and elevated public opinion (or at least mine) of the Fedex company and it’s employees.
Lapse in judgment or brilliant PR move?
Andrew’s story has gained massive amounts of interest and momentum (the ultimate goal of social media, as it relates to marketing). One can not hear this story without then hearing the FedEx employee’s response and their communications department’s official statement. These both publicize the company’s employee loyalty, community involvement, and overall understating of the human nature aspect of social media. Kudos to FedEx!
In this particular case no harm was done, Andrew’s client looks better than they did before and a very strong social media lesson was learned.
Job well done?
Pam,
I am not sure whether you are really asking me to respond or are just using this forum to express your opinion, and in doing so, you are the one who is perpetuating awareness of the issue. I haven’t posted anything further for more than four days. However, I do know that countless other blogs are writing about the issue.
Hi, David – Thanks for your reply. I was genuinely asking for your opinion – you’re sitting in an interesting position at the intersection of traditional journalism and social media, and I’d appreciate your insights on how the two converge in your case. I’m trying to develop my opinion, not perpetuate issues (I’m honestly not sure what you’re referring to there!)
I just found your post today through the site of someone named Ed Lallo, who posted some information about you on his site and promoted it to IABC through LinkedIn. So I’m not aware of the other sites you referenced.
No hidden agenda here…just interested in a conversation about the direction of all of these things!
Pam,
I have written three extensive postings on this blog about this subject, and I believe that you will see the answers to your questions. I am raising questions about such things as an example of an online social media image crisis going unattended by a major PR firm, and a lack of accountability and transparency. I invite you to read all three pieces.
Hi, David, and thanks again, – In my first post, I acknowledged that you might have these covered somewhere on your site (and asked for directions to point in the right place if they were already there). Just thought I’d ask. Are there any readings in particular that you recommend on these topics?
Pam,
Just click Home above, and you will see the three posts, all from last week. I sincerely hope it adequately answers your questions. To be honest, I am about written-out on this issue.
Thanks, David – that’s really helpful. I promise not to bother you with any more questions! Will make for stimulating conversations with friends who read and friends who write. Thanks for the fuel!
Like you, Pam, I am just an observer. I dislike cyber-rumors, and simply did some checking to learn more. What I found was a bit more. Beyond that, I don’t have a dog in this fight, as they say. I am disappointed that both Ketchum and FedEx felt the need to blame Mr. Andrews, who simply made a mistake … the sort of mistake we all could make. Silence, however, will fuel the fire of rumor, and the subsequent silence is odd, especially in the PR business.
You are very right on those last points! It does seem to equate to an admission of guilt, shame, or bad practice. Thanks again for your replies.
Pam,
I appreciate you reading all my postings, and welcome further discussion.
David
i find this reaction unfair. maybe him saying “i would die here if i had to live here” was a little over dramatic, but he never said reasons why he wouldn’t want to live here. and why should anyone care that he wouldn’t want to live there? i don’t want to live anywhere in tennessee and i think i have the right to say that i don’t want to. and besides i’m sure these people have said “geez, i would hate to live here!”
give me a break. what happened to freedom of speech?
Hi,
Thanks for the article. I have followed the first 2 exchanges, but appreciate the rest of the story you provided. I’d love to download the e-book, but the link isn’t working. Thanks much!
David,
Sorry you encountered problem with the ebook download link. Whatever gremlin, it’s working now: http://www.mediasavvyleader.com/wp-content/uploads/MediaSavvy_InternetEra.pdf
Best,
David
No, no, see… Mr. Andrews was cleverly showing FedEx what NOT to do with social media. Yeah… that’s it…
This is pretty ridiculous. What if he’d been from Memphis and typed the same message about New York City? How on earth can FedEx lay territorial ownership on Memphis to the degree that one man’s opinion on his ability to live/understand the environment is insulting? If anything, the PR community should be embarrassed that this even became an issue rather than one man not enjoying a town that a client is located in.
Another excellent example of what happens when PR folks make themselves the story instead of their clients.
Josh, My understanding is that Memphis pride is in the Fed Ex DNA. It doesn’t matter whether they overreacted or not (and I think they did). What matters is that someone representing a brand should understand that brand enough to understand their culture – and what may or may not be considered offensive to them. You wouldn’t walk into Domino’s wearing a NARAL shirt either.
Wow… this is a really interesting thread although I have to admit that reading about the situation left me with a strange yucky feeling. I whole-heartedly agree with the poster who said: “If the best solution we can come up with is ‘Watch What You Say On-Line,’ then our creativity and our fate are at the mercy of the tools.”
So all of social media should be used for positioning and making sure we look good? It shouldn’t be a representation of the actual world where people have differing opinions, thoughts and beliefs? I love reading different people’s twitters about their days and their thoughts – regardless of what they do for a living and regardless of whether I agree with everything they say.
Fed Ex would rather he thought it but didn’t say it out loud? Smacks of censorship to me!
Wow! I’m floored by this story….Fedex is a very savvy company! Within 24 hours of DHL announcing major layoffs in Nov. 2008, I received an email from Fedex. In short, it said, “Fedex: We’ll pick up where DHL leaves off. If you’re concerned about the effect that DHL’s downsizing will have on your business, rest assured that FedEx will be there for you to deliver peace of mind.
I was amazed at their use of Fire & Motion.
Jared Lyda
http://www.fireandmotionblog.com
Mr. Andrews is a genius. I heard that he called FedEx the day before and told them,
“Look, you can use social media to garner tons of free publicity that will not only make FedEx look good, but will help to build your brand as a company that is concerned with community values and social conditions. Really, with 25 words I can give you free advertising that will reach throughout the web. I’ll show you.”
The FedEx guys did not believe him, “OK, show us how.”
So Mr. Andrews laid out the plan,
“I’m going to send out a little tweet that pokes a little fun at your town……”
And so it went. He understands that people love to hear the mundane controversial stories. We are addicted to “fake” reality shows. When society is falling apart, we turn to unremarkable and uninteresting forms of news and entertainment. As the economy tanks while we are fighting two wars, we can’t get enough of the news that Tyson made some dolls that share the same names as the Obama kids. “No way, really? Oh my God, I can’t believe it”
And so it goes.
Aren’t we suppose to be professional communicators here! It is always better to be upfront and honest rather than running from the issue. This will only bring him more attention.
Erika,
Have you, by chance, read the subsequent blog postings here on this issue?
David
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.
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!
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.
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.
Why not try a Trackstick for this?
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.
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.
Your site is excellent. I’m really excited and expecting the best for your next post. I hope I will get it this week. Really value this post in particular. It’s not easy to separate the very good from the bad sometimes, but I think you’ve pushed the right key! Do you accept guest articles here? I would like to write a few of my articles here.
Can’t disagree with Bailie more. A farely measured response from FedEx to a somewhat tactless (if not braindead- I mean he JUST landed, he hadn’t actually VISTITED the city at all)tweet by someone they had contracted with. I’m not sure how we get from a response from fedEx’s PR dept to “wated corporate resources and bad business acumen”?
Unfortunately, the problem many blogger’s face is they feel they have to fill their page and have some sort of insightful comment insight andor just take a position instead of saying i’m not sure or thats not my area of expertise. The comment about a lack of business acumen and corpopate resources are a perfect example. Just cause you have a blog doesn’t mean you shouldn’t lose the ability to know when to keep your mouth shut on certain subjects when you realize you are just blowing smoke. Discretion IS the better part of valor, epsecially when you talk just to talk. I do believe that most bloggers would bore me to tears at a dinner party. (Now I’ll prob get accused of restricting 1st amen rights- my point is- just cause you have a blog doesn’t make you intertesting or right, and most bloggers are just people who shouldn’t be published anyway.