So I’m back on the blog again, after far too long of hating the layout of this blog but not getting off my arse and doing something about it (although, if you want to redevelop and design it for me, please get in touch) I have decided to just put up and shut up about it. After all, it’s the content that’s most important… right? right?
Let me welcome you all back with my take on employees and Twitter: mUmBRELLA has an article up on the recent launch of ABC’s new rant space, The Drum. In it, Tim Burrowes asks the question: ’should journalists using a Twitter account as part of their job relinquish control of the account if they change job?’ As he says, pushing the new portal out to the 8,000 odd followers between ex-Crikey editor Jonathan Green (@GreenJ) and the ex-Sydney Morning Herald journalist Annabel Crabb (@annabelcrabb) was bound to bring in a few readers from the popular micro-blogging platform. Burrowes asks the obvious, “[b]ut is it fair to their old employers that the ABC’s The Drum has enjoyed that immediate traffic leg-up based on their old roles?
I say screw the media owners. Such a view of ownership of social media profiles undermines the whole concept of social networking. It’s about people. I follow Green and Crabb and I follow Crikey (@crikey_news) (and I’d follow SMH too if they’d sort their shit and get on Twitter!). I follow both Green and Crabb because I am interested in what they as people have to say. And I follow Crikey because, as a general rule, I am interested in the content published by that media org. Two very different reasons for following.
I didn’t stop following Green or Crabb when they left their respective former-employers, nor did I stop following Crikey for that matter. Why? Because I follow Green and Crabb because of who they are. That is in part influenced by the status and creditability of where they came from of course, but it’s more about who they are as personalities. They post interesting, engaging (and sometimes down right hilarious and bizarre) posts. Did that stop when they changes jobs? No. Did Green and Crabb suddenly become automatons because they were no longer affiliated with Crikey and SMH? No. And did I suddenly loose interest in them as 140-character charmers because they’d moved on? No.
If media organisations want to ride the fan stream even after an employee has moved on, then the accounts being used should be established by the media organisation itself. So, using Crabb as an example, the handle should either be generic (something like @ABCTheDrum) or it should identify the person as being part of the media organisation (like @annabelcrabbABC), kind of like being given a work email address which you relinquish control of when you leave. To require general, personal accounts to be handed over at the cessation of employment is like requiring an employee to give you the username and password of their personal Gmail account).
To take a comment by Margaret Simons further, media creators (or any profession for that matter) should not just be cautious of employment terms that limit their capacity to use social networks, they should avoid such an agreement altogether. And this includes where the employer tries to claim the network that builds up around that person. Let’s keep social media social.