Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Unprofessional Conduct by a Business via Social Media


Social Media can be a wonderful thing both professionally and personally.  You can become informed about industry specific news or you can reconnect with an old friend.  But what happens when the two become intertwined and a private business dispute is then made public?

A family I worked with over 25 years ago opened up a bar about 20 years ago.  They have a Facebook page for their establishment which I “liked” and I reconnected and “friended” some members of the family.
Apparently, the owners of the bar did not create, set up, or have any administrative controls over the Facebook page.  They relied on the competence of one of their staff members to maintain and update the page.  But did the family ever consider what might happen to the page should something happen to this employee?  The answer is no.  And the only reason I know, along with the rest of the Page followers or friends associated with the family members, stems from the very point that there were no contingencies and that the whole issue was made public.

According to the status updates that were streaming into my feed that started off with a tone of annoyance became a tone of anger.  And, without knowing the details, seemed to be just a friend blowing off steam.  In the end, on the Facebook page, the background story was made public and here is how it follows.
The employee that oversaw the Facebook page was allegedly caught skimming from the business.  The business owner tried to keep it a private matter by just terminating the employment and didn't exactly think about the Facebook page or any other privileged access to the public image and marketing to which this employee was privy.  This is mistake number two on the part of the business as they acted out of emotion, probably without much deliberation if any.  On the one hand they wanted to keep it private, that is admirable, but they could have kept it private at the same time they could have postponed their action to terminate.  By keeping it private and acting hastily and emotionally, they denied themselves the benefit of contemplation and counsel.

As a result, this newly terminated former employee shut down their Facebook page.  All of that client relations good will and data are now held hostage by a former employee.  I can’t even use the word disgruntled because, logically, who would keep up a page for a business for which they are no longer associated?
 
It was at this point that the family members’ status updates started to become angry and belligerent yet at the same time trying to shame this former employee into “doing the right thing”.  Doing the right thing would have been to take a more deliberative tone in handling the termination, but now the only action they could do was to plead in a public way and try to convince the former employee to grant them access to the Facebook page.

Ultimately it was resolved and the bar was able to put the page back up.  The former employee allegedly acted improperly causing his/her termination, but it all stems back to the business and the family owners for not understanding the ownership and control of their social media marketing and presence.  Moreover, had they chosen to handle the termination in a deliberate and professional fashion, they could have kept it very private just as they had intended.




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