In today's socially-connected world, it's increasingly the norm for high profile companies to have a clearly defined social media policy for their public-facing staff to follow when conducting business conversations on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc. The most comprehensive policies go a step further to also cover off-duty staff, using social media for their personal needs, to ensure tweets, Facebook status updates and employee blogs steer clear of defamatory or inflammatory topics that might bring the company into disrepute by association.
Best practice policies
These enlightened businesses understand that their staff WILL be using social media whether they (the business) would like them to or not, and that their staff's social media interactions can have an impact on the business even if those interactions are carried out by the staff member outside of their work capacity. An organisation's social media policies are drafted to provide clarity on what the business deems to be acceptable or unacceptable and to demonstrate common sense, best practice tips and guidelines for staff to follow which will (hopefully) prevent gaffes and protect both the business and its staff in the long term. It's a relatively simple process: define your policy, communicate it to your staff, ensure they understand it and follow it. What could be simpler?
The 'Twitter' Olympics
Now for a small change of scenario, try replacing the word 'business' with 'national Olympic team management' and the term 'staff' with 'athletes'. This year saw the first Olympic Games using social media to provide public information on a large scale, dubbed the 'Twitter Olympics' by many. When the last Olympics were held in Beijing in 2008, Twitter had 6 million users; in 2012 that number has ballooned to over 500 million. Facebook has 900 million users today; in 2008 it had 'only' 100 million. Including the two Chinese networks (Tencent Weibo and Sina Weibo), today's social media users number around 1.5 billion. That's a lot of people interacting via two channels that, ten years ago, didn't figure at all on the worldwide media scale.
Social media mistakes
Many of today's top sports stars are regular social media (particularly Twitter) users; tweeting constantly about their performance, interacting with fans in a way that just wasn't possible before now. But the publicising of an athlete's stream of consciousness isn't always a good thing, as Voula Papachristou and Michel Morganeka can attest. The Greek triple jumper Papachristou tweeted a joke that was deemed offensive and racist by many twitter users, and the Hellenic Olympic Committee agreed, dropping her from the team immediately. They then issued guidelines to the Greek team, limiting Twitter topics to include only "personal opinions on themselves, their athletic condition, if they're on form, or about the games. Until the games are over", according to a Committee spokesperson. Michel Morganeka lost his place in the Swiss football team for a similarly offensive tweet; after losing an early match to South Korea he tweeted inflammatory comments including a suggestion that Koreans should "burn themselves" and calling them "retards".
Australian swimmers Nick D'Arcy and Kenrick Monk very nearly didn't make it to the games after D'Arcy posted a photo of himself and Monk posing with their shotguns and pistols. The Australian Olympic Committee acted swiftly to demand the image be removed and banned the swimmers from using any social media at all for the duration of the games, also requiring them to return home immediately after their events were completed. Australia's Chef de Mission said in a statement: "We say again to our athletes, do not put anything up on social media that you would not share with your mother or your grandmother.
"There is no such thing as privacy on social media. Anything that is put up will be in the public domain."
IOC guidelines for Olympians
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) well understand this concept, and followed the lead of business in drafting a clear policy on social media for all Olympic teams to follow. Their four-page Social media, blogging and Internet guidelines document stated that the IOC "encourages participants and other accredited persons to post comments on social media platforms or websites and tweet during the Olympic Games".
"Social media is about your own voice, and what you're feeling and experiencing," Alex Huot, head of social media for the IOC, says.
But the guidelines make clear that these comments should be in line with the Olympic spirit, be "dignified and in good taste, and not contain vulgar or obscene words or images".
The long term implications
This is something Papachristou and Morganeka would have done well to remember before going public with their thoughts. They have only themselves to blame for their Olympic disasters; if they had lost their Olympic chances through accident or injury they may still have a bright future in their respective sports in the long term. Time will tell if their careers will ever recover from the self-inflicted negative PR. Their downfalls have been no accident, and they won't be in line for any accident compensation claims as a result. Papachristou has already been disowned by Procter & Gamble; the company severed all ties with her immediately to distance itself from the PR fallout. She may have damaged her future corporate sponsorship opportunities irrevocably.
Great Britain won the bid to host the 2012 Olympics on a platform of 'legacy', but will one of the unintended legacies of these games be that all future Olympics will be much more heavily policed in terms of social media?