Social Media and Corporate Image

Let’s talk about social media damaging a corporation’s image. This past week I heard a shocking story about a Jetstar employee requesting a young passenger on a plane. Check out the article in the Sydney Morning Herald, . Last week my blog focused on social media and the impact it can have on an individual’s career, now I am focusing my attention on the impact an individual employees social networking can have on a company. Obviously the employee should not have went out of his way to look up a passengers information and contact them outside of the airport, what makes matters even worse is the age of the young passenger. What could Jetstar have done to prevent this behavior of one employee from impacting their reputation? I think that companies are going to need to have a social media/privacy clause in their employee contracts now that social media is here to stay.

This is an interesting and relevant article on who owns a company’s social media
, it raises all sorts of questions, when a social media strategist is hired at a company do they own the fans/followers or does the CEO. Often a social media consultant will be hired due to their popularity and following on their own personal sites/blogs/twitter. Who should decide what goes onto companies social media sites? It makes sense for public relations people to be in charge of social media because it functions as a microphone for a company, it is equally and sometimes more important than “traditional” media when it comes to reputation because it is so easy for anyone to instantly update or tweet and damage a reputation.
In the end reputation can be enhanced or ruined though social media.

Your Fired! Thanks Facebook

This past week I learned a lot about Marshall McLuhan. He is best known for the “medium is the message” quotation, however I found this one interesting and relevant to the ongoing discussion on social media, “Publication is a self-invasion of privacy.” Marshall McLuhan. It seems that he was predicting today’s society and the merging of the public and private sphere. I am an active user of Facebook, I don’t give away any personal details I wouldn’t share in my “real” life. However there have been many cases where people have been fired over something they said (posted) online.

This is a video about Dan Leone who said he was fired from Lincoln Financial Field after expressing his opinion on Facebook about being upset a free-agent was not chosen (his own preference, which he thought was private from his employer).



We do have a choice about what we post on Facebook, and should realize our profile can impact our career in a negative way (especially in public relations, which is focused on reputation). The once private is now very public.

Thinking about this another way, all of the personal details we choose to share on Facebook and other social networking sites are a online marketers dream! There is often no need to conduct market research when your target public are already willingly pre-established into distinct groups.

Facebook is being open and honest saying they are allowing advertising, however there is not much information about peronalization of ads yet.



I have noticed lately that my Facebook ads seem to be very targeted specifically to me. For example, I Googled shoes in Sydney and the same day was bombarded with ads for shoes in Sydney on Facebook… coincidence?