Social Media is not like Vegas

As I have written on many occasions, Twitter and other social media are too powerful tools to be left to kids for merely sharing gossip and music. Used properly and strategically, it is an awesome medium for establishing your organization and yourself, the chief executive, as global leaders in your field of choice.

Used regularly and purposefully, Twitter et al can dramatically help your company’s leadership or NGO to evolve into thought leaders – those who are trailblazers in the marketplace or humanitarian affairs.

However, if today’s news can be a teacher, you have to be careful about the content of your tweets.

You may wax poetic or spout a philosophy, ideology or critique without bringing humiliation or scorn upon yourself. You may choose to tweet about your company or non-profit, your product, service, mission or ideas, and you will not scandalize yourself and your organization.

But if you wander beyond those markers and launch or share rumors or hearsay, then be ready to be vilified or ridiculed. After all, social media is not like Vegas and what is tweeted or posted is shared with the world.

According to published reports, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos learned this lesson the hard way.

The New York Post’s Page Six reported that texts from Bezos to his lover Lauren Sanchez were leaked by her friend. That triggered the avalanche of true, half true or untrue tweets and posts about Bezos’ intentions.

Understandably, there’s no technical way to recall a Tweet or stop anyone from spreading a text that you’ve shared with another person. You can’t put tooth paste back in the tube. This unfortunate incident is a grim reminder that anything you tweet or post on the Internet can easily be disseminated or reshared by someone who may have less than honorable objectives.

Juda Engelmayer, president of HeraldPR, a New York public relations firm and a crisis management expert, was quoted as saying “Anything you do and anyone you speak to can have repercussions. The only secret is the one inside your head. The minute you share it, it has the potential to get out.”

Many Twitter gurus have noted that Twitter made history with its social networking service. It was the first social network to spread news – or fake news – faster than any other medium, and it still stands as a record holder when it comes to that.

Twitter is great when it comes to speed because we can choose the speed ourselves. You never have to get your message approved on Twitter because you control it. That is, you control the message until you press “tweet” or “post.” Then your message is up for grabs by anyone, anywhere.

On social media, you can instantly start picking up on not only what people are producing or offering but also what they’re doing, saying and sharing. Also they can offer, say and share quickly what you are doing – or thinking – or proposing – or building – or organizing. It’s not all about celebrity power and their influence on our lives. It’s also about common or uncommon people like you.

We’ve already seen some pretty historical tweets in the past decade. News events, President Trump’s tweets and those by the Pope, Oscar or Emmy awards, sports, wars, local and faraway events are followed immediately by everyone before the broadcast media and newspapers report them. Tweets can be about historical events such as those happening all around the world. When we learn about other people’s thoughts and activities, we share them. Twitter has become the world’s press room.

People everywhere are using Twitter to share events in their towns and countries, spark a new idea, request help, denounce a tyrant, announce a helpful discovery, or plant a new thought.

Those on Twitter also use the network heavily. About two-thirds of Twitter users, 71%, say they use the network several times a day, another 12% daily and 12% several times a week.

You too should regularly promote your issues, causes and solutions many times a day to attract the attention of as many people as possible in all global time zones. This will build your reputation as well as your business or publicize your NGO.

Just one caveat: stay away from rumors, hearsay and half-truths. If you’re not sure, don’t endorse it by sharing. There is enough true information that you can share that will bring you fame.

So join the conversation or start one. You may be surprised by the number of people you will quickly attract as followers.

I’d also like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:

http://thoughtleadership.yolasite.com/              

If you’re looking for advice on recruiting, company handbooks, immigration policies and other human resources topics, I’d like to suggest to you this interesting website:

http://hrtiebreaker.yolasite.com/

Scroll through my blog to read about more ways to promote yourselves and boost your outreach.