The Ketchum-FedEx-Twitter Saga
About the Author: David is a veteran communications strategist … writer … blogger … online publisher … and Emmy Award winning former CBS Network News correspondent. He lives in the Washington, D. C., area, and works worldwide. He is also a person I am honored to call a friend.
The purpose of this posting is to pull back the veil, and attempt to get added perspective on what may have developed as one of the first, if not the first, examples of crisis communications in today’s new and evolving online Web 2.0 social media world.
Last evening, there were so many visitors to this blog to read How Not to be a Key Online Influencer - approximately 118,000 at one time – that my VPS hosting service crashed for a short time. Reading the comments from visitors, I saw a recurring appreciation for hearing both sides of an online story. I viewed it as bringing journalism to blogging, and no big deal. By the way, I really appreciate people taking the time to post those comments.
It demonstrates, I believe, the enormous power of Twitter and social media. As Lyelle Petersen(@93octane) commented on this blog, “a perfect example of how dangerous social media can be if not taken seriously.”
