“EVERYBODY’S MEDIA”

Here’s a bit of commentary on our highly-networked social media world:

In an interview leading up to this weekend’s golf tournament, this year’s Masters’ champion Phil Mickelson was asked about a Krispy Kreme incident that happened on Monday after winning the coveted green jacket. Phil pulled up to the drive-thru window in his Masters’ jacket (“it was kinda chilly out, so I just grabbed a jacket….”). Phil was fulfilling a promise to his kids that he would get the sugary donut treats once the tournament was over. The woman working the drive-thru that morning recognized him, snapped a picture on her cell phone, and posted it online.

Phil’s comment was that it was just another reminder that “everybody’s media.”

How true. Anyone with a cell phone and a computer can now report the goings-on of anyone else.

To me, there are several lessons in this.

1. Always be your best self because you never know who is watching or listening or reporting. For those who were required to read George Orwell’s 1984 in their high school English class, concerns that “Big Brother is watching” were tied to big government and was seen as totally un-American and the ultimate invasion of privacy. Now, of course, we actually have “Big Brother” reality shows and YouTube, where it is not the government who seems to be watching but everyone else. Whenever I counsel people on social media, my biggest caution is, “Don’t put anything up on Facebook that you wouldn’t want to appear as the front headline of the newspaper.” Your boss (or potential future boss) is actually watching, despite what you might think.
2. Be respectful of others. The media has laws and codes of ethics to follow as it relates to public figures, and John Q. Public, Reporter-at-Large, needs to honors those same codes. For celebrities and non-celebrities alike, at the very least, the Golden Rule should apply. They may all be new tools, but the same basic principles of human decency still apply.
3. Yesterday is gone. There’s a whole new world of power out there. Use this power for good, not evil. Yes, “everybody’s media,” and that has given rise to a world of opportunity for entrepreneurs, empowered consumers who want to engage with their favorite brands, and given marketers a whole new slew of venues for communicating with their target audience.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Feel free to add a comment for any of our articles!