…Oh lord please don’t let me be misunderstood
It’s not just an amazing tune given to us from the great Nina Simone (and then again by the Animals), it’s also my Twitter Bio. Something I had posted for fun without really thinking about when I set up my profile. I was only reminded of it when one of my newest Twitter friends Rajesh pointed out that whenever he saw me tweet, it would pop into his head.
It got me thinking, what a great song it was and how truly applicable it is to communicators in this business who are constantly walking the fine line between practicing what we preach (i.e. remaining individual and unique–keeping it ‘real’ if you will) and remembering that we’re in a fish bowl that never forgets. Of course, top of mind is the Ketchum/Fed Ex saga that played itself out on social media big screen just last week.
When you first read that letter from Fed Ex management, you can’t help but cringe at the glaring error in judgment the Ketchum exec made by taking shots at the company’s hometown of Memphis–especially when they are part of a revitalization effort for the area in question-ouch!
But I can’t help but want to cut him some slack. While misguided, his intentions weren’t filled with malice or hate. His mistake was one we could all find ourselves in at some point. With social media tools becoming second nature to us, and Twitter feeds taking on stream of consciousness reflexivity, all you need to do is add a few savvy clients to the mix and what happened last week is all but guaranteed.
And isn’t that the point? To make all clients social media savvy?
While we continue to try and keep it ‘real’, and at the same time strive to connect our clients with these tools, I just hope that if I ever find myself in the same situation, someone will remember to sing the chorus of that song for me.