LIVING IN A FISHBOWL –OR— HOW SOCIAL MEDIA FORCES TRANSPARENCY UPON YOUR BUSINESS

Anything you say can and will be Tweeted against your will.

Social media can shatter traditional bunkered and protected ecosystems; in this example the sanctity of a high school principal’s office is violated initially by a student’s Tweet and ongoing by the Social Biosphere itself.  It’s a new power dynamic old dogs need to face, plan for and acknowledge in organizational strategy and factor into the risk communication equation.

 In the Social Biosphere there is always the potential for transparency, organizations need to act accordingly and incorporate the realities of the social operating environment into their risk assessment planning and risk communications planning operations.

Case in point, Republican fiasco in Kansas.  Gov. Brownback received a negative Tweet while delivering a speech to students at Shawnee Mission East High School located in Prairie Village Kansas.  No doubt the governor’s speech was full of the usual hypocrisy and outright lies we’ve come to expect from all politicians however, it’s the utter Gestapo-like tactics employed by the Republican Governor’s staff that were exposed for the entire world to see and that business need take note.

An aid to the Gov-A-Fuhrer, Sherriene Jones-Sontag, ratted out the offending student for exercising her First Amendment rights to the school’s principal, Karl Krawitz. Now think back to your school days and remember just how closed a system schools operate within.  In-fact I’d say, based on Constitution-Killer-Karl’s actions, he counted on none but the student ever knowing what actions he took to curb her First Amendment rights.

Chief RAT to Gov-A-Fuhrer Brownback - Sherriene Jones-Sontag

Enter the Social Biosphere, bringer of light and transparency even to formerly closed ecosystems such as our schools, and even in Topeka Kansas, home of those other most Anti-Americans the Westboro Baptist Church (Fred Phelps and co) most famous for demonstrating at our veterans’’ funerals. So it’s probably no accident that Gov Yellow-back, oops I mean Brownback and his Gestapo RAT aid, Sherriene Jones-Sontag, along with Constitution Killer Karl, a little Hitler in the making if ever there was, felt secure in: 1. trampling the Constitutional rights of students, and 2. believing they’d get off scott free because who could ever violate the sanctity of their little world.

Kudos to the Wichita Eagle for running the story and the Social Biosphere for giving it legs.   

The moral here for all businesses, politicians and organizations is as simple as it is hard to grasp: in the Social Biosphere anything you say can and will be Tweeted to millions of people.  And most probably used against you, your brand and all the hard work you’ve done and millions of dollars you’ve spent crafting a reputation within your ecosystem.

There is no bunker deep enough or ecosystem impervious to the potential for damage wrought by the complete transparency social media brings to stakeholders of all stripes, even 18 year-old students. 

Ladies and gentlemen, information is power and within the Social Biosphere, the power dynamic has changed forever.  Ignore this reality at your businesses peril.