According to a legend, there was a small fortress back in 16th century, attacked by the Ottoman Empire. After a long siege, food run out and the people in the fortress were hungry and exhausted. The commanding officer started to consider surrendering to the enemy. There was only one small rooster left to eat, not enough to feed them all. But then, an old and wise woman suggested to the commanding officer to fire the rooster out of a cannon to give the enemy the impression that they had plenty of food left. And it worked – the enemy retreated. It was a proper PR spin, good old fashioned propaganda.
Now, imagine the people in the fortress had Facebook... I bet you the siege would end differently!
“I’m hungry!”
“Looking at that rooster right now, reaching for the knife!”
“Not much to do but wait for surrender”
Last weak Siggi wrote about the problems Israeli army is facing in relation to Facebook. British Ministry of Defence has similar worries. Their soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq aren’t exactly happy campers and they often use social networking sites to channel their frustrations and complaints. So, guys at MoD developed the Defence Online Engagement Strategy which describes how these threats are going to be tackled. Words like dismissal and even court martial are mentioned. The document also describes how they intend to use social media as a PR weapon.
The document states: “...our own people are our most effective advocates in promoting our activities, and they can be our most damaging critics."
The same goes for all organizations. For MoD controlling the online activity of soldiers is a difficult task, but at least they have the court martial, unlike other types of organizations.
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And the Facebook saga continues. As a non-Facebook member I cannot comment on the advantages this social network seems to posses. However, I feel that I am equipped to recognise some of the damaging effects from this environment (or is it simply damaging effects from participants in this environment?). It seems MoD is taking matters into their own hands and addressing the issue before it gets out of control and becomes damaging to them. As Mairi Mallon indicates in her article “employers need to give employees clear guidelines on using social networking sites or risk all sorts of problems in the workplace”. I agree with Mallon and MoD’s preventative techniques, but isn’t MoD being a little harsh….court martial? Overall, PR professionals need to recognise how social networks are changing and the ways in which they are being used. If professionals are restricted to use social networks, as indicated by a recent poll that revealed “two thirds of top London companies are now banning or restricting the use of website Facebook” then the way in which we use social networks need to adapt.
http://www.insider.co.uk/editorial/currentissue/tm_headline=employment-law-facing-up-to-facebook&method=full&objectid=20306877&siteid=52742-name_page.html
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