I read a tale of woe from the Economist this week, about how both Virgin Atlantic and British Airways had flown into turbulence over their respective employees’ use of blogs and social networks. Seems that passengers took a dim view of being described in less than flattering terms online.
Odd that a similar furore didn’t arise when Air Babylon was published, yet the idea is essentially the same. Hence, I guess, the use of ‘Anonymous’ as the alleged source of the insider’s view.
It’s amazing how badly some organisations are dealing with the democratisation of production and distribution of content that characterise the web 2.0 world.
I recall a couple of years ago being on a panel at a marketing conference at which we were asked by a marketer from a University how he should handle the fact that students were using social networks to actually tell prospective students what life was like at his university. Should he ‘control it’?
My jaw is still bruised from it’s severe drop when a fellow panellist told him “Yes!”
That is, not just contribute to the discussion, but actually try to quash genuinely expressed views.
I wonder if the same answer would be give a couple of years later? Surely to do this is merely chasing bubbles in a water bed. You might stop them appearing in that location, but the commentary will merely appear somewhere else – and probably with deeper bitterness.
Anyone remember f***edcompany.com? I wonder if we’re due a version of that for social media snafus.
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