Social Media's Impact

You may have noticed a news article in late July about a reporter, Shea Allen, who was fired from WAAY for comments she made in her personal blog. Much has been said about her situation--some believe she  should have been fired and some support her right to express herself on her personal blog. I would like to add my comments to the mix. If you have read my blogs, you know I am a digital immigrant. I love digital technology and fully embrace many aspects of social media. But I also know that I am responsible for all my actions--online and off. You can view Ms. Allen's blog here--Shae Allen Says. In her "about" section, the first item she gives is her job as a reporter for the local television station. Obviously she is proud of her job, but she has forgotten that as the investigative reporter, she is one of the public faces of WAAY. As is the case with many journalists, when people see or hear about a particular journalist, they immediately think of their workplace--the paper, the radio, the television station. In a sense, Allen is part of the brand. As such, the lines between her personal and professional life are blurred. Anything she says or blogs is going to reflect on her personally and professionally. Anything she says or blogs online can affect her relationship with her company.

"Having the right to do something doesn't make it right to do it" is a quote I posted in my classroom. I believe this quote fits the situation with Shea Allen. Yes, she does have the right to say what she wants how she wants, but she is also responsible for what she says or writes. If you look at her blog, she admits to taking "naps in the news car." Do you really want your boss to know you are sleeping while on the clock? The item that probably bothers me the most is her statement about being "frightened" of old people and refusing to work on stories involving them. First this is just rude and disrespectful. According to Alex Trebek, I am an old person, and I don't like her statement. Second, and maybe more important, who does she think is in her viewing audience? In 2010 the average age of the nightly news viewer was 53. Maybe the viewing demographics are different for WAAY, but it seems as if she has just told a good portion of her audience she is frightened of them.

I'm guessing Ms. Allen is a member of the Millennial generation. According to Live Science their best attributes include being open-minded and supportive of equal rights.  As a group, their worst attributes include being more focused on self and material items, and less focused on the community at large. This focus on self may have led to the "I have the right to post anything I like" attitude. This is a true statement. We can say anything we like, but we must also understand that consequences may occur for what we say.

Before social media's popularity it was easier to keep our personal lives separate from our professional lives. Before the popularity of social media, our conversations were not open to the general public. Our interactions were not videoed and viewed by thousands of people. Social media has been blamed for blurring the lines between personal and professional, and that blurred vision can get us in hot water. According to All Twitter "91% Of Employers use Twitter, Facebook And LinkedIn To Screen Job Applicants." Their graph shows that 47% scan social media immediately after receiving an application. Of those surveyed, 69% said they rejected applicants because of what they saw about them on social media sites. All Twitter's information was from a 2011 survey. Just recently I spoke with someone whose sole job was to review  applicants' social media presence. She reported that her company rejected approximately 80% of applicants due to their social media presence. There is a flip side to this; the All Twitter survey also said 68% of the companies surveyed hired applicants because of their social media presence.

So it does matter what we post. Do we showcase our skills, our service to the community, and our professional qualities or do we showcase inappropriate pictures, inappropriate comments, or our lack of communication skills? Deiser and Newton's article in McKinsey Quarterly suggests that leaders need to have a variety of social media skills. Social media is not going away; it will probably change as technology changes, but it is here to stay in some form or another.  Leaders already on the job who are not savvy in social media can be educated in the ways social media can enhance their companies, their brands, and their presence in the world market. Colleges can include social media as part of the educational process--teaching how to effectively use social media for different study areas and how not to use social media. Teaching ethics in conjunction with social media would be useful as well as studying the impact social media has on all of us--personally and professionally.

What Ms. Allen did was not wrong morally, but it was a mistake in judgment. We have all made mistakes in judgment; unfortunately for Ms. Allen, hers was very public and it cost her a job. Whether fair or not, we can be judged by how we treat ourselves and others on social media. I think sometimes we forget how far our reach is.