David Holmes

Archive for August, 2013|Monthly archive page

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How an innocent tweet can blow up in your face

In Reputation Management on August 19, 2013 at 11:16 pm

Over the weekend, the Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott – who is now running for Governor – got himself in a bit of a mess on social media that should serve as a lesson beyond politics to all business owners. Of course, politics often brings out greater passions in people from the beginning, but it is not difficult to recall times businesses have gotten themselves into similar trouble. And this was such avoidable trouble.

It started when a lawyer named Jeff Rutledge who tweets under the handle “@jefflegal” mentioned Attorney General Abbott in a tweet opining that Abbott will beat Senator Wendy Davis if she runs for Governor because she is an “idiot” and “retard Barbie.”

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Actions speak louder than memos

In Reputation Management on August 16, 2013 at 11:14 pm

CEO of AOL, Tim Armstrong’s handling of the firing of an employee during a conference call with hundreds of other employees reveals as antiquated a philosophy of corporate communication as the floppy disks with which AOL used to try to entice us all.

AOL owns a local news network called Patch. On a call with employees of Patch discussing the flailing subsidiary’s shaky future, an employee in Armstrong’s presence, Abel Lenz, tried to take a photo of Armstrong. The CEO’s reaction was to fire Lenz immediately during the call; the audio of which someone recorded.

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What businesses can learn from politicians and jars of poo

In Crisis Management on August 7, 2013 at 11:10 pm

While governmental agencies are quite different in their operations and expectations from private businesses, there are many similarities between the requirements placed upon them when dealing with the public. Government agencies, though, have a unique responsibility in that they serve as representatives of the public with whom they must communicate. So, while some of this situation might only apply to a government agency, many of the lessons apply to your businessas well.

Several weeks ago, controversial legislation was taken up in the Texas Legislature that brought out more activists to the Texas Capitol than have been seen there at one time in decades.

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Anatomy of a social media disaster

In Crisis Management on August 1, 2013 at 11:06 pm

Social media is both a great amplifier and equalizer. Business communication may have been forever changed because of the use of social media and we seem to see weekly examples in the national media of the growing pains individuals and companies face in acclimatizing to their new voices and exposure.

While there seems to be a constantly growing roster of teachers getting fired for posting something online their students shouldn’t see and an open list of shame to which some companies appear to be attracted like moths to flames, few social media snafus highlight the complete array of communication failures like this week’s firing of a food truck employee in New York because of his Twitter shaming of the company (Glass Lewis & Co.) whose employees failed to tip on a large order.

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