JMPR Communication

I find it ironic that yesterday@CongJoeWilson (Joe Wilson) shouted “You Lie!” to Obama during his congressional address.  After all, Joe Wilson is active on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Flicker and more.  You would think that this guy would understand- what you say in Congress lives on the Internet, no?

Within minutes of Mr. Wilson shouting at the president last night, my Twitter-stream began filling up with requests to call Joe Wilson and tell him what you think. I was seeing phone numbers before Obama’s speech was over.  Not only was the news fast, but it provided something a network news team never would: personal contact information.

Check this out:

Joe Wilson Trends on Twitter

I have to say, I was surprised.  I expected people to be angry.  I expected people to trash him.  I even expected people to refer to him by Twitter-name.  But distributing his phone number and cell phone number (and later his fax number)? WOW. “Joe Wilson” is still the number one trending topic on Twitter as of 4:00 pm the next day.

I shouldn’t be surprised.  When we as people get upset about anything nowadays, we shout it to the rooftops, and we post post post as much as we can.  We want everyone to know we are upset!  Most want to both vent and protect others from their misfortune.

And in this case, people even stepped in and altered the message telling folks to call Mr. Wilson to show their support.  That’s a lot of phone calls between the angry and pleased, don’t you think?  (And I hear the phone lines were all busy last night.)

Joe Wilson put out an apology on YouTube today wherein he acknowledges that his outburst was wrong and that he apologized to President Obama immediately after his speech.  Mr. Wilson then goes on to ask for a donation to support his stance on the Health care option.  I don’t know about all of you, but I am tired of these YouTube apologies that aren’t REALLY apologies.  (See Chris Brown.)

All this to say:

In 2009, everything you say and do in real life could easily show up on the Internet.  Think before you speak, and be prepared to apologize and/or defend your actions.

If you communicate on behalf of a corporation remmeber, bad things may be said about your company, but it’s how you respond that matters.

Oh, and if you set out to apologize- actually apologize.

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