Photograph by doctorvee
Are you a Social Media Native or complete Twit?
Recent high profile gaffes by politicians Ed Miliband and Diane Abbott are proof positive that Social Networking particularly when you are in the public eye needs to be treated with extra respect. Sometimes the points you think you are making privately can get picked up and misrepresented in the blink of an eye.
Experts are predicting however that the next generation of Social Media users will become much more savvy in the way they self-publicise and use tools to promote their own opinions.
Labour MP Diane Abbott had to apologise earlier this month after a comment on Twitter about white people led to accusations of racism. Ed Miliband, the Labour party leader then mistakenly entered “Blackbusters” in a tweet expressing sadness at the death of former Blockbusters host Bob Holness.
But as a younger generation of people emerge who are tapped into social networking from an early age people working within the social media industry believe that this level of ignorance will decrease as society realises what sort of impact an unguarded comment can have on a career or reputation.
Speaking to the Guardian, Director of social media consultancy eSocialMedia Kieran Hannon commented that society was in “a transition period”, where many senior figures had grasped the significance of social media but were still grappling with when and how to use it. “I am 30 and my friends’ kids are talking to 10 or 15 of their friends on Skype conference calls, they are on their Xbox chatting to their friends, they have got their Facebook on the mobiles, they are BlackBerry messaging – they are networked up to the gills.
He also spoke about the power social media can wield for businesses and how high profile individuals are now tapping into a medium which does not come as naturally to them as it does for younger people who are growing up within this environment.
“A lot of executives and senior professionals at the moment are using these channels to communicate and they are just getting there, but they are not natural, they are not digital natives and that is where the issues arise.”
As many businesses focus on ways to harness the power of Social Media as a main objective for 2012 it is important that the individuals making the decisions understand the right and wrong ways to communicate on the likes of Facebook and Twitter.
Milaband and Abbott are just two examples of dozens of people self-publicising and getting it very wrong much to the embarrassment of their colleagues and the organisations they represent.
As Social Networking becomes more ingrained within popular culture the smart business leader will have procedures and practices in place for all staff to recognise and follow. Harnessed correctly Social Media can be your best friend, treated with indifference and it will be you that ends up looking like a twit through a tweet.