P.J. Crowley and Gilbert Gottfried were fired this week because of insensitive and tasteless tweets.
These aren’t ordinary men. Crowley served as press secretary at the U.S. Department of State, and Gottfried was the voice of the duck in TV commercials for the American Family Life Assurance Company (more commonly known as Aflac).
To the uninitiated, here are videos featuring both Crowley and Gottfried.
While the offending tweets have since been deleted from their respective @PJCrowley and @RealGilbert timelines, everything lives forever on the web.
Crowley’s tweets must be approved by the State Department. This one was not and was subsequently cited across the wires in poor reflection of the Obama Administration:
“We have been watching a hopeful tsunami sweep across the Middle East. Now we are seeing a tsunami of a different kind sweep across Japan.”
Gottfried wrote a series of tasteless tweets, archived at this page of his 10 worst about Japan (some of them are not safe for work).
Both men are hardly alone. They are not the first to be fired and they won’t be the last.
Chrysler saw itself in heavy oil last week when an individual tweeted an improper message and that person was subsequently fired. And last month the American Red Cross confessed on their blog after an unintentional tweet was sent. While it was an honest mistake and nobody was fired, the takeaway is one that strikes every person representing every organization on the planet.
The role of a spokesperson extends beyond the 9-5 hours of each day. Tweets and other media communicated by a spokesperson will always reflect the organization whether or not disclosure exists. Marking your Twitter account as “personal” is no excuse for bad behavior. Perception is reality, and these three words I recognize every day in my role as an elected city councilor. It’s a shame that Crowley and Gottfried got fired in this down economy, but they should have known better.
About Ari Herzog
The old qualifier of “writing in a personal capacity” and “not representing the views of the organization” doesn’t stand up in the case of Twitter, where tweets are sent around the world in a matter of minutes. There must be loads of people now sacked through thoughtless or unwise comments on Twitter. I read the case yesterday of “Cook’s Source”, in which the editor justified plagiarism and wanted to charge the original author for editing her work – caused such an uproar (and tweeted to all and sundry) that the journal ceased publication. Truly social media have become a powerful tool!
You’d agree with me that someone’s Twitter biography that says, for instance, “I work for X but these tweets are my own,” is inaccurate — because of global retweets and potential repercussions?
Yes, agreed – people in responsible positions are never far from the public eye and any unwise comment is bound to reflect on the organization they work for. Catching someone out used to be restricted to hidden microphones waiting for the “off the record” comment from a politician or whoever, but the Twitter phenomenon means that the media doesn’t need a hidden mike now to trip someone up; the unwise commentators do it by themselves.
Twitter and facebook can not only be a great customer service tool, these services even come in handy for human resources or employee satisfaction.
As an employer, I would make an rss feed of all tweets and facebook messages of my employees so that I know whats going on in their mind and can address their concerns (or fire if needed).
That presumes you know what your employees do. The more rules you set up restricting their activities the more likely you’ll never know who they are and what they say.
Poor taste is poor taste and now people get to broadcast it globally instead of at the water cooler. These high profile people together with the unwitting person tweeting about Detroit serve as a reminder to keep our words clear and clean. Thoughts haven’t been broadcast yet, or at least I don’t think so.
The clear reminder is don’t tweet anything you wouldn’t talk about at the family Thanksgiving dinner with your future in-laws.
Exactly. The problem is that with Facebook and Twitter, we are encouraged to speak too much and, as my grandfather loved to say, “More talk, more mistakes.”
Your grandfather was a smart man.
We need to be careful about everything that we wrote on social media. Everything we wrote will be read by others people. I have found case just like your post. Many students are excluded from their school because they wrote bad things about their school.
The problem most people seem to have these days has little to do with the Internet; the problem lies with people not bothering to learn the basic rules of business and personal etiquette.
Of course, one cannot teach someone what is in poor taste but it’s not unrealistic to hope that people will practice the adage, “When in doubt, the answer to the question is no.”
I know it’s poor taste per se Ari, but I think we need to buck-up a little as a society and not get so dang offended with every little thing. So the guy made a bad analogy….We should then fire him after many years of service?? I don’t know man.
Yes, people need to be more careful and aware of who they are and who they represent when they tweet, but the world also needs thicker skin, IMO.
Thanks
Marcus
Just because someone has a thicker skin doesn’t mean that they should do away with the basic rules of business and personal etiquette.
When something is offensive or insensitive, it doesn’t matter how thick one’s skin is … it’s still offensive or insensitive.
Mmm – social media is a vast and strange phenomena, capable of all sorts of things…
I think people really ought to think before they write or share anything in social media sites since we all know whatever we do or write in the Internet stays in the Internet and well if you are a renowned person then surely your updates are bound to be monitored by people. And also nowadays there has come a new trend of businesses monitoring their employees social media interaction. So it is really a good idea to keep away your personal opinions in the internet specially in social media
I think people who place such things online understand (they are smart enough if we look at their positions) that their writing can and will be visible to other people and probably to the bosses.
Now you’d better say something than place something bad online. In the first case, you have chances to avoid firing – in the other case – no chance. Somebody will see your post, somebody will show it to your boss and – here you are – made redundant!
If I were a boss, i would fire such people!
When you’re a public figure, or at least seen in the spot light, social media can be your best friend and worst enemy. What’s unfortunate, though, is that when you’re representing a company or a government, your personal thoughts, opinions and actions have to be filtered, too. Once a social forum, people are taking social media more serious then ever. After all, it’s in writing for the world to see. It’s sad that someone can’t make a joke, express themselves, or make a statement without getting back lash from sensitivity, but that’s the social media game. Wouldn’t you think their PR would have advised them on the do’s and dont’s?
I love Twitter because engagement terrifies me.
Ari,
This is my first post on your blog, but find it interesting and plan to return!
As one person above me commented, Social media is a powerful thing – word travels so fast around the world in the blink of an eye. One has to use caution and consider every single word they use on a corporate or public account when tweeting. I have to wonder in the case of Crowley if I wouldn’t have just skipped having a twitter completely. I was a bit taken back by the fact the state department has to approve his tweets. I think GG was going for humor but it didn’t read that way at all – it read as some horrible attempts to be funny that ended up being extremely rude and nasty. I guess these guys definitely show us what NOT to do (unfortunately at a bad economic time). When you wanna know what TO do when it comes to social media – feel free to check us out and attend one of our free webinars “Capitalizing on the Conversation” . I look forward to networking with my fellow blog readers and professionals here on Ari’s blog.
Kimberly
Social Media Magic