MacIntyre-Kemp compares Tweets to Tattoos following BBC producer's Twitter revelation
Following the revelations this morning that the BBC was planning on relocating its breakfast programme from London to Salford via a tweet from one of its producers, Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp has told The Drum that people using Twitter should think of tweets as tattoos.
Yesterday, breakfast producer James Laidler told his Twitter followers that staff at the BBC had been informed of the move, which was picked up on instantly by the media. His tweets were removed from Twitter soon after, but it was too late as reports of the move had already begun to appear.
MacIntyre-Kemp spoke to The Drum about mentioning work developments on Twitter, where he said that he felt that people saw social media tools such as Twitter as personal, and would forget that not everyone ‘listening’ is a friend.
“60% of businesses in the UK claim to have a social media marketing strategy (often meaning no more than the marketing department set up a corporate profile on LinkedIn) but only 32% claim to have a social media usage policy for staff. Does that mean that 68% of people working for UK businesses can tweet what they want?” he continued.
“My view is that if your Twitter profile says you work for a company then that profile represents your employers no matter what caveats you put in the bio.”
MacIntyre-Kemp went on to cite the example of Kerry McCarthy, who ‘tweeted’ for former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and could now face prison or a £5,000 find after she illegally published the pre-election postal vote through Twitter, as an example of how serious an ill advised Tweet could become.
“If you were to get a tattoo you would know that its there for life - if you post something on social media think of it as getting a social tattoo and careful you don't get one you will regret. Actually that sounds rather ominous - just use common sense its a broadcast medium and its being recorded!” he concluded.