Obama ‘Jackass’ Tweet Heard Round the World as Social Media Curmudgeons say ‘I Told You So’

Earlier tonight ABC reporter Terry Moran tweeted that POTUS called out Kanye for his jackassery at Sunday night’s MTV Video Music Awards.  The fact this was an off the record portion of the interview makes things a bit dicy for Moran who’s update was quickly taken down but with over 1 million followers had been too quickly retweeted.  In short, it’s out there.  Forever.

By Tuesday morning the damage won’t be to Obama except his pride when he sees Biden who’ll quickly chid, “Everybody thought I was the one with the big mouth!” Moran’s seat at the White House Press Corp dinner will be a bit further back – like in the kitchen – but he’ll still be there at least.  And Kanye will write a song about the incident that might become a number one hit.

Most damage will be felt by the reputation of social media.  All those long-time corporate communication and marketing managers who’ve been too timid to join the conversation will grab the microphone and like Kanye proclaim “This is what we were talking about. You can’t always control it!”

No you can’t always control it but you can have:

• Corporate policies that address social media usage by employees
• A Plan of Action in place when the inevitable inappropriate comment is made.  It doesn’t have to be pages long, just make sure it’s transparent .  The honest reaction was to delete the post (maybe none of my MILLION followers saw it). But it only compounds the “social media authority” of the news item.  As Red Bull would say – it gives the story wings.
• ADD helps.  With “blink and you missed it” news cycles whatever damage, real or perceived, won’t last long if you keep putting out other relevant content.
• A sense of humor – after all Obama was right wasn’t he?

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