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The power of the social network (and how to deal with disgruntled ex employees)

Posted by Andrew Grant on Friday 05 Mar 2010, 09:02:00

Last night I got a text from a close friend as I sat catching up on the days emails which said “who have you pissed off recently?”

For anyone that underestimates the power of Twitter in the corporate world or thinks that blogging wont affect their bottom line let this be a warning to you.

The tweet in question was started by an ex employee of mine directing people to a website which questioned the integrity of my agency. Its not the type of microsite I’d have developed myself, however I was impressed they took time to get our branding right.

Im not about to dwell on the issue behind this, fact is the guy behind this is pissed off and wants revenge and the internet offers him a massive stage. We’ve all been here, it’s a fact of business life. Some of us have suffered more than others. Just think of the “We hate Arnold Clark” web campaign.

But what impressed me was the speed at which the URL was spread across twitter (use the twitter search facility and you can see everyone that RT the nasty URL, keen to be part of the gossip). What surprised me were some of the names that had chosen to RT this URL (you know who you are!) and I hope now you RT this link to restore balance to the world. I was able to survey the damage by establishing how many and who the followers were of those busily spreading the news.

Lets face it at some stage we are all going to piss someone off and with the rise of internet its only too easy for them to make a mountain out of a molehill. So what should you do?

First off don’t ignore it, it won’t go away (look at Tiger Woods). Stand up and face the music. The next thing is be aware of your legal rights – they may say they won’t turn up to court, but if they are “passing off” or “cyber squatting” their host is legally obliged to rip them off the web. Regarding "passing off" legislation if you can prove who posted this (and that’s where the www.domaintools.com comes in handy – or www.register.com), they are passing off as your company and you can hit them legally. Check the www.outlaw.com website one of the market leaders in digital legal stuff – also follow @jsmackenzie (a partner at this law firm) and @BrodiesTechBlog (a partner in charge of IT etc with Brodies - a leading Scottish law firm) who are both specialists in this area. That isn’t the only option – and its common knowledge lawyers can be a tad expensive (sorry guys).

If someone has the name of your firm in their URL chances are that when someone searches for your firm by name through Google they will pop up. We had a house builder client that had some guy blogging about how bad they were due to the fact his house was not ready on time. They spent a fortune on legal fees but he was telling the truth and not ‘passing off’ so they came to us. Using SEO tools (i.e. key words etc) we created a bunch of other websites and social networking profiles (microsites, Youtube profile, Linkedin company group, blog etc) which we made sure ranked higher than this guys blog and in doing so removed him from the first two pages of the search results.

It also worth keeping an eye on your system passwords (change your wi-fi password regularly, keep you finance and HR files locked away online). Make sure employees dont have access to your Twitter account (remember what happened to Vodaphone recently when a disgruntled employee tweeted homophobic chat on their behalf – which made the newspapers).

Another idea is to insert a Non-disparagement clause into your employment contracts. These are a relatively new type of agreement and have arisen primarily to prevent employees putting comments about their employing organization onto the Internet. Non-disparagement clauses can be a tool to "manage" information flow from employees who may be upset that they were terminated. Further, the non-disparagement clause should clearly extend to all forms of communication, including e-mails, chat rooms, instant messaging and all other forms of electronic communication.

Before you go, check this out – a while back two domino pizza disgruntled employees made bad comments, the CEO reacted immediately and a social media consultant explains why that reaction and candid response neutralized the attack.

http://garyvaynerchuk.com/post/97241964/dominos-pizza-and-why-there-are-bigger

As the guy in the video says, don’t be afraid of social media, accept that you can’t control it, however, you must understand it, embrace it and if you know what you are doing you can also profit from it.

Tweet me if you want to find out more @wearenation1