Given the ongoing meteoric rise of social media, which includes video of course, you just can’t be too careful!
I read recently in the Times (in Costas if you must ask, a popular haunt of mine where I spend far too much time and money, but where the consumption of a small “Americano” helps my spirits no-end), enough of that though and back to the Times…that two more of Mitt Romney’s aids “sought to distance themselves from his remarks” and of course in doing so, distance themselves from him and halt his own meteoric rise in popularity, which seems to be coming to a grinding halt because his breathtaking views of what he referred to as the “bottom half of earners”.
Apparently in a secretly-shot video Mr Romney dismissed the bottom half of earners as spongers who slavishly supported President Obama saying “I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives” – one of Romney’s supporters, Senator Scott Brown issued a statement saying “that’s not the way I view the world”
But here’s the thing… the rise in Social Media makes it all too easy to pass on the things we’ve actually said and gives us little opportunity to take stock and re-phrase things, avoid the heat of the moment or just not to say them at all.
In the same way, the growth of review sites and sites that ask you to give a review, giving customers the chance to comment and suppliers to take stock of those comments, (in itself a good thing) can also be exploited by mal minded individuals who are hell bent on attacking a business. Indeed as an crest fallen bystander, I watched as a friend of mine suffered because of one malicious rant that lead from a misunderstanding between himself and one petty, simple minded client out of many, many happy ones.
This sort of thing has now bread a new industry of online reputation management which I suppose is good for the economy. But does it really work or just fuel the flames?
