"2012 will hopefully bring not only more effective use of social media as a business tool, but also a clear path forward on who owns what when it comes to social media accounts."
As covered by John Lai’s article last week, “Who Owns the Followers When Employees Leave?”, there has been a growing media and online uproar over a lawsuit filed by the company PhoneDog against its previous employee, Noah Kravitz. In simplistic terms, after Kravitz left PhoneDog in early 2011, PhoneDog sued Kravitz for ownership of any Twitter followers that he had gathered under the mix-branded handle @PhoneDog-Noah, while he was working at the company.
As stated by PhoneDog in a release to the New York Times:
“The costs and resources invested by PhoneDog Media into growing its followers, fans and general brand awareness through social media are substantial and are considered property of PhoneDog Media L.L.C.”
Since the name @PhoneDog-Noah was a mix of PhoneDog’s brand and Kravitz’s personal brand, it is now a battle, and perhaps a more philosophical argument as to who are Twitter users really following in a situation like this – the company, the person, or both?
A misgauged reaction
To be a fly on the walls of the PhoneDog offices would be an interesting one in the last week. From an obscure lawsuit looking to regain control of Twitter followers came a media storm from all levels – grass roots and mainstream alike. It has garnered the company perhaps more attention than I assume they had anticipated – and to PhoneDog’s dismay, the narrative has been set with Noah Kravitz as the underdog hero.
While no one can argue that the whole reason that social media is being utilised by businesses to increase revenue, PhoneDog seems to be the villain in many people’s eyes for bringing this non-secret to light. While PhoneDog’s metric of valuing each follower that Kravitz kept at $2.50 per follower, per month, is preposterous to most of us as a realistic valuation, we can all agree that Twitter followers are worth something to businesses. If not, professional social media management will become the passing fad of 2011.
So why the uproar from the Twitter community over this suit? It comes down to not what we know to be true when it comes to social media, but what we think is right. For many, social media is about social connections and interactions, not money and ownership. As business is slowly getting its feet wet in social media, it’s clumsily learning how to work in this new paradigm- and sometimes tripping itself up.
A lesson learned
This saga is nowhere near done being played out in the media, the courtroom, and online communities, so the verdict is still out on how this may all play out for Noah Kravitz and PhoneDog. But the lawsuit has finally stirred multiple discussions that have needed to take place for sometime. What lessons does this leave us on how we look at social media communities from a corporate perspective?
Don’t treat followers as property (or money)
Social media is based on communities of individuals interacting together. Brands and companies have so far been successful at mixing into these daily personal interactions, but they must play by community rules. Those rules are debatable but they are definitely egalitarian at their root, especially on Twitter. There are no gatekeepers and there is no ownership beyond your own words and account. Each entity may say what they want and interact with who they please. PhoneDog got smacked with a lot of online criticism by stating something that counters these basic principles of online freedom: the implied corporate ownership of other personal accounts.
The lawsuit between PhoneDog and Kravitz defined all of the 17,000 users in question as a sum of corporate property and the Twitterverse responded in a fairly universal backlash. Adding a $2.50 price tag on everyone’s head was insult to injury to those who believe in these “digital individual rights”. Companies beware: You don’t own anyone here.
The value is in connections, not headcounts
The value of your social media network is based upon your followers maintaining, promoting and amplifying your brand- not just following you. As we learned with the Newt Gingrich Twitter scandal, followers can be bought easily and, ultimately, Twitter is not a popularity contest if you’re looking for business value. The real bottom line benefit to a company comes from a group of followers who strengthens, shares and amplifies your brand message.
Point your company towards gaining brand evangelicals – ones that really believe in your business and then interact with them, learn from them and, perhaps, even reward them. A follower like this spreading your message is worth a hundred (thousand?) purchased accounts. The age of “I have X amount of Twitter followers” is over.
If lawyers are involved, it is time to get serious about social media
2011 seemed like the year where the majority of the business communities were finally starting to grasp that there is real money in social media as a business tool. Case in point, we’re now seeing business vs individual cases in the courtroom for ownership of not only Twitter accounts but now Linkedin as well. If lawyers are involved, then we know there is money to be made and value to protect.
This means companies need real internal social media policies that protect both the corporation and social media managers. If policies do not effectively balance the interests of the corporation and the social media personal, in the end, this could stifle individuals from using the account effectively and begin to negate the benefit of social media to businesses.
When you look at the case of Noah Kravitz, he was able to gain 17,000 followers because he was able to leverage his personal brand with his company brand. Personas are brand strengths in social media and businesses should encourage this blend. But if policies lean too heavily to protect only business interests, companies will find it increasingly hard to find quality social media managers willing to risk their own personal brand for the sake of the companies overzealous safeguards. Especially as more lawsuits like this hit the media.
2012 will hopefully bring not only more effective use of social media as a business tool but also a clear path forward on who owns what when it comes to social media accounts. Let us hope that we can all take a lesson from PhoneDog and Noah Kravitz debacle and develop strong social media policies that protect all parties this year.