Social Media: The Megaphone for Unhappy Employees

Twitter crises seem to be a dime a dozen these days.

Some involve getting 'slizzered' and have a happy ending. Others involve road rage and end up causing serious damage. There are also tweets making a light of revolution and interns burning bridges.

Then there are the stories you never heard.

Ryder, a well-known truck rental company, recently had an unhappy employee blast the company on Twitter. This employee had a workplace issue he/she felt was not adequately addressed by HR. The employee started an account called 'ryderemployees' and followed trucking companies, industry leaders and media outlets. The employee called Ryder out on its response and made it known he/she was not happy.

What was the issue? Well, I'll have you look at these screenshots of the now-shuttered account. Remember, the oldest tweets are at the bottom of the last image (the yellow highlights are from Google Cache).

Obviously, this was a crisis and had potential for more damage. The employee engaged with local and national media trying to get attention. The account was gone shortly after the employee posted the last tweet, before anyone could pick up the story.

Before the rise of social media, an employee in this situation would have sat quietly and said nothing. He/she would just be angry and mutter under his/her breath. No big issue except for one unhappy employee.

But social media is a gigantic megaphone. If someone isn't happy, it will take no time for him/her to be heard. If a company treats employees unfairly (or is perceived as doing so), there is nothing to stop this from happening. The only way a company can stop this from happening is by treating employees fairly and ethically.

Ryder recognized the issue and addressed, since the account is gone. Did Ryder solve the problem? Did they threaten the employee with a lawsuit? How did they really solve the issue?

I have no idea. I reached out to their PR department via Twitter but received no response. If you're the person behind the account or if Ryder wants to reach out and explain the situation to me, I'd love to hear it.

How would you handle this situation? Would you find and engage the employee directly? Would you ignore the issue?

Entry-level Workplace Tips

In about two months it will be the anniversary of my college graduation. I can't believe it's been almost a year since I went from student to entry-level professional. Time really flies.

Like I've said before, I'm not working in my ideal industry (agency PR), but I try to gain meaningful experience and make a positive impact at current position every day.

Recently, I've been getting asked the same question over and over again by my friends who haven't graduated yet: "What's some advice about working in the real world school didn't teach me?"


Well, let me share with you some things I learned from experience and through co-workers I wish I knew before I started working.

NOTE: All of these experience are at a private company in a corporate marketing role. Your experience at a start-up or agency might negate some of these tips.


Always say yes

Now, I always knew this tip, but it's definitely worth repeating.

The word 'no' should never cross your lips unless you're being asked to do something ridiculously over your head (like if a developer asked me to start coding .NET). No matter how menial the task, always show you're willing to do whatever it takes for the company. Since I started my job, I've been asked to do quite a bit of clerical and administrative work completely unrelated to my position. I faxed, scanned, copied and spent hours renaming contract files. Was any of this making use of my strong writing skills? Nope. But it showed the company I have no problem taking on any task given to me.


You never know when a random skill you have will come in handy

Remember that skill you listed on your resume you thought your job would never use? Well, you might actually use it. For example: I know how to code HTML, but I've never had to use the skill with the content management systems I use. Yesterday, I ended up coding an HTML table for HR because their online HTML editor didn't have an automated table creator. I never thought I'd actually have to code any HTML, but having that skill came in handy and made a positive impact with HR (and whenever you can make HR happy, that's always a good thing).


Corporate bureaucracy is brutal

This is probably the hardest issue for recent grads transitioning to a full-time job. When I worked on group projects in college, there was discussion and then action. In a corporate setting, you have discussion, more discussion, consulting with upper-level management, some more discussion, contacting departments, more discussion and then maybe some actual action. Not all projects are like this, but the layers of bureaucracy can make you lose all motivation.

Many times, your initial vision and the final product don't match up. You have to be very careful balancing relationships and not stepping on anyone's toes. My advice is to never lose sight of the big picture when you start facing the bureaucratic process. As Dory from Finding Nemo said, "Just keep swimming."


Calling and/or physically talking to a co-worker is better than emailing

While I'm sure some co-workers don't mean to ignore my emails, it happens. If someone doesn't respond or starts to give the run-around, I physically talk to them or call them if they're in another office. The ignoring, excuses and run-around magically disappear when I call or talk to someone in person.


Manage up

I sort of knew what this meant, but I didn't know how to actually do it. Managing up is essentially holding your boss accountable to you. If you need some information or a resource from your boss and he/she hasn't given it to you yet, ask for it. Bosses have a ton of things going on and the information you needed could have simply dropped off his/her radar. This information could be holding you back from progress on your project, so managing up will show you take initiative.

Now, obviously, don't go overboard and start demanding things left and right, because this will make you look annoying. Manage up with a delicate touch.


That's all for my tips. I'm sure I'll have more for another post soon.

Do you have any entry-level tips you wish you knew before starting your job?

B2B Social Media Value: Twitter and Monitoring Conversation

Well, well... it's been a while. My life is pretty hectic and I'm juggling quite a bit both professionally and personally, so my blogging keeps taking a backseat. I'll try to remedy this in the coming weeks.

As you may or may not know, I work in marketing communications for a B2B transportation software company. It's not a fast-paced agency or B2C company with a product I use, but it's very interesting. I've learned a lot about my company's products and modules by jumping head-first into sales literature and product documentation. It's very challenging, but I'm proud of my new-found knowledge about the products.

Part of my job involves managing our company's social media presence. Do you know of any transportation software companies using social media? Yeah, I don't either. My company is huge in our industry, but we don't have the presence of other giant B2B software companies (Oracle, for example). Our closest competitor uses Facebook to repost press releases, but that's an awful use of social media. So I've really been experimenting with our social media presence. Here's a recent example demonstrating the value of Twitter for my B2B company.

Monitoring the social media conversation isn't just about mentions

I monitor our Twitter feed using HootSuite every day. I set up HootSuite to let me know when our company or products are mentioned on Twitter. Many people think this is enough to qualify as monitoring social media. It's not. You need to actually read these tweets and pay attention. Why? Well, let me tell you:

(Note: Company name has been redacted. We'll call it 'XYZ.')

Last week, one of our customers (who we follow) tweeted something similar to this: "If you were an XYZ driver, call us! Let's get them back to work!"

XYZ must have went out of business or had something major happen, but I didn't know if XYZ was our customer. So I checked our customer database and it turns out XYZ was a customer. Further digging online showed XYZ went out of business the day before in the late afternoon. I saw no mention of this in any industry news source. I contacted our general manager (GM) for the product line XYZ is on, to let him know about XYZ's sudden closure. Guess what? The GM had no idea XYZ closed and I was the first to tell him.

This is why you must actively monitor your social media sources. A keyword search for trucking or my company wouldn't have told me this information. Actively reading what customers were talking about was the only way I would have found this information in a timely fashion. By doing this, I've shown a GM at my company the value of social media.

I plan on sharing more B2B social media experience as more happens.

Do you have any stories demonstrating B2B social media value? I'd love to hear them!