Your husband bills himself as the keyinfluencer, and while I don’t know him or his work personally, I have no doubt that he is quite adept at online media and influencing. That being said, as a senior member of a well respected agency, and a self-proclaimed expert, he should know better than to write an ambiguous OR clear statement about hating anything having to do with his client.

As a PR practitioner myself, I don’t like the constant walking-on-eggshells feeling I get from social media, but I also recognize it’s the nature of the beast, and we have to be cognizant of that when we write anything that’s read by the public.

From what I can tell, this was a private matter (albeit an unfortunate situation that took place) and your husband should have thought more clearly before writing that tweet.

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Your husband truly married well.

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Unfortunately social media can serve as a playground for “cowards and gossips.” People need to work through their personal issues in a constructive way, as opposed to targeting someone online. You said it best when stating, “people abuse it by carrying out their own vendettas against individuals, companies or groups of people.” What’s terribly sad is these “people” I’m referring to are supposed to be “adults.” I feel anyone who sees through the cattiness and malicious acts will share in my opinion. Thank you. Your words not only defend your husband, but also others that have fallen victim to online attacks.

Sincerely,

An Adult

I spoke about this ages ago, in my post “Freedom of Consequences”. Everything you post to the internet is a standalone. Each instance has to represent itself… and you… and in this case, your company.

The only reason this even became a tabloid issue is that people are too busy running around scared to voice their own opinions and talking about people behind their backs on the back-channel.

Self-expression presents both an OPPORTUNITY and RESPONSIBILITY on the internet. Only post what you’re willing to stand by. What this means is that you’re better off posting specifically instead of generally. Make it clear what your problem IS and WHOM it’s with and you won’t have to worry about other people interpreting it however they choose in order to forward their own personal agendas.

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http://bit.ly/14imG

L Simon as a FedEX employee has it – the valuable lesson about how to use social media and some of the COMMON pitfalls has been learned well by Ketchum, FedEx and many of us out there. FedEx is much better prepared to navigate the new media sphere, with their agency Ketchum providing valuable albeit unconventional insight.

I’m not a big fan of how your husband writes (his emotions right now are showing, especially on Tweets), so I won’t follow him online, but thats OK. I will keep my fingers crossed he takes the value in the lesson also, not just everyone else who’s emotions aren’t on the line.

Maybe we should all try to use social media as if we were Barak Obama – he really has a handle on it!

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I agree that much of the bashing going on out there is way over-the-top, but I will say that what your husband did was unprofessional. It was a faux pas – we all make them, and they’re typically not a big deal.

The reason this is being treated as a “big deal” is because he was on his way to a workshop to teach “Social Media in Marketing”. Having attended that call, his action reflect on what he said there.

But hear me out.

Your husband’s oops has put Ketchum into the spotlight. Thousands of people who had never heard of them, now know what they do, and where James’ area of expertise in particular lies. The media coverage has increased awareness of FedEx’s contributions to the city of Memphis, the share culture of sacrifice where all employees take a pay cut instead of making layoffs, and the leadership of Fred Smith.

At first I was slightly miffed about this, as a FedEx employee – but the fact is, both of our companies have a net benefit from this.

From all the hoopla, I’ve learned two things: Be careful what you say on Twitter, and you cannot run from the transparency that “new media” brings. Even the dressing down and grousing amongst personalities can make it out onto the pages of newspapers now, and it would serve us all well to be a little more polite in our dealing with others.

As a Fed-X employee I can understand your loyally to your company, but I still respectfully disagree. Granted, this situation does warrant some discussion because for most it is treading on new ground. The rules (spoken or un-spoken) in the social media world are still being set and not yet understood by all the players.

Hmmm, it seems the question from a general corporate point of view (any corporation) is whether or not an employee is allowed to have personal opinion about anything? Or can they have an opinion, but not express that opinion in an open forum? Remember, James was twittering under his own name and expressing his own opinion about a damaging incident that happened to him personally, not as a Ketchum employee.

James was very careful to NOT say WHY he had a problem with Memphis in the first place that prompted him to send the tweet. The tweet, in your opinion was a faux pas, but the letter written by the Fed-X employee “leaked” to the internet was not? I think that letter was damaging to all parties involved. Certainly that was a breech in the corporate chain of command? The whole situation could have easily been handled in person.

Opinions. We all have them. Thankfully, I don’t have to censor mine, but I also refuse to stoop to the level of some of the comments that I have received (and not posted). Don’t even get me started on some of the comments and emails that James has received…some of these people need to have a warrant out for their arrest, seriously.

My intent in writing my blog post was not to come to James’ defense, as some have stated (he is quite capable to taking care of himself), but to put a human face to all the mean-spirited things that are being said. I find it very disheartening that people can be so cruel and basically harass both James and I over an incident that I think is really small, in the bigger scheme of things. Remember, this was all going on when the plane was crash-landing in the river.

Is that even your real name? I would use a fake name too if I were you because after a comment like that, people might come looking for you. How dare you insinuate that a person doesn’t know when they are being discriminated against!

That’s it—that’s the end of the negative comments to be posted and answered, because it will just get ugly. And I am much too pretty for that.

If your husband is honest enough to complain about whatever the act was, then he should be honest enough to tell everything that happened.

Weak argument for an unprofessional act by your husband.

“Anybody who uses Twitter and knows what they are doing, knows that it is a dialogue that takes place.”

So many just don’t get it. It’s about creating conversations, building relationships. That’s why we need people like your husband to teach.

(And as a wife/womyn married to her best friend, I love that you’re so vocal for your husband!)

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Saying that he’d die is hyperbole, but anyone with a grasp of English should be able to recognise this.

To the FedEx people, if you were proud of Memphis like you claim then you’d not have let it deteriorate to such a degree that you snap believing people don’t like your city.

Whether or not he was talking about the city in general or an incident is irrelevant. You don’t have to like everywhere.

The very fact that they tried to embarrass him by emailing him and cc’ing all the ‘brass’ at FedEx speaks volumes to the fact that they’re not comfortable with social media.

So yeah, I have a problem with him. You tell him (for me) to stand up for himself and make an example out of people that have thin skins and a lack of refinement.

/* End of rant */