The home heating oil industry has a long and proud history, and Fuel Oil News has been there supporting it since 1935. It is an industry that has faced many challenges during that time. In its 77th year, Fuel Oil News is doing more than just holding
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/506889
EDITOR'S NOTE E D I T O R I A L S T A F F Editorial Office EPG Media & Specialty Information 3300 Fernbrook Lane N, Suite 200, Plymouth, MN 55447 Publisher John Prusak 763/383-4402 jprusak@snowgoer.com Editor Keith Reid 847/ 720-5615 kreid@specialtyim.com Managing Editor Nicholas Upton 763/383-4466 nupton@epgmediaLLC.com Senior Contributor Stephen Bennett Columnists Charles Bursey, Sr. Shane Sweet George Lanthier List Rentals MeritDirect, Jim Scova jscova@MeritDirect.com 914/368-1012 Reprints Robin Cooper rcooper@specialtyim.com P R O D U C T I O N Production Manager – Karen Kalinyak Art Director – Brian Snook A D V E R T I S I N G S A L E S East – Dave Campbell, Associate Publisher 413/528-8835 Cell: 413/717-1007 dcampbell@specialtyim.com Central & South Rich Alden 603/899-3010 Fax: 603/899-2343 ralden@specialtyim.com West – Ken Jordan 972/540-2122 Fax: 972/540-2127 kjordan@specialtyim.com M A I N O F F I C E EPG Media & Specialty Information 3300 Fernbrook Lane N, Suite 200, Plymouth, MN 55447 C U S T O M E R S E R V I C E 847/763-9565 • Fax: 847/763-9569 Fuel Oil News PO Box 2123, Skokie, IL 60076-7823 I wrote a basic, informative piece on social media in this issue of the magazine. As a writer, I frequently learn something new or develop a new insight when putting together an article, even in subjects that can be familiar. This article was no exception, as I gained an insight to the risks associated with social media. It started me thinking of when I was the spokesperson for an international trade association and handled the occasional hostile interview from the national media—a necessarily high risk and invariably low reward endeavor. But, also one I was trained to take on and whose parameters I understood well. Unfortunately some of this same risk has moved more into casual social media, and with smaller operations I would imagine the training is not there to fully appreciate just what that risk now entails. I should state up front that in my opinion social media has become unavoidable for companies that serve consumers. In a sense, for those companies it's the equivalent of a website for any busi- ness. Also, the most destructive social media missteps actually take a convergence of forces—a perfect storm—to really flare up. So no need to be overly cautious, but there is a definite need to be cautious and knowledgeable of the medium and its varied memes and narratives. The risks associated with social media have been there from the beginning. However, we now live in a time where activist groups have a hair trigger response for slights real or imagined, and use a like-minded social media mob to smite offenders. Twitter seems to be the primary battlefield. For example, in 2013 a PR specialist (of all professions) named Justine Sacco tweeted the fol- lowing before boarding a plane for her trip to South Africa: "Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!" Yes, you cringe reading it. The tweet had spread throughout the world by the time she landed and Sacco was subsequently fired. South Africa is currently suffering from an AIDS epidemic, the victims are primarily black and apparently without much thought she put together a poor attempt at some combination of humor and sarcasm. In all likelihood Sacco is not a racist. We've all probably been there, trying to make a funny and failing in an awkward or even appalling manner. Among friends that gets blown over. On social media, good luck. Sometimes, the minefields are well hidden to the point of being practically invisible to most good-natured people with some degree of common sense. But again, we are talking about social media here. Clorox just had a run in that they likely never would have anticipated. Emojis are little graphical icons, the equivalent of smiley faces, that started in Japanese elec- tronic messaging platforms and have since become more international. Apple was criticized previously for not having racially diverse emojis on its platforms. The company recently added 300 new emojis that included racially diversity and a range of icons for various household items. Clorox decided to tweet a marketing tie in related to there not being a Clorox Bleach emoji in the mix: "New emojis are alright but where's the bleach." Unfortunately, an activist made the leap of logic to conclude that what Clorox meant was to bleach away the "emoji's of color" that had been added at the same time. Corporate courage being what it is, Clorox apologized. Again, the goal of bringing this up is not to keep companies from pursuing social media or moving back from it if already there. It's not meant to imply that social media should be humorless and sterile (and frankly it's difficult to imagine being able to dodge something as ridiculous as the Clorox fiasco, regardless of how tightly controlled). The take away should be that any issue related to race, sexuality, politics or other hot-button social areas should likely not be taken flippantly as a source of humor or commentary on the busi- ness site. Nor should a post or tweet be made in anger. The folks responsible for your social media likely need some training and solid guidelines on appropriate interactions just as spokespeople get media training. Social media is just too unforgiving if that perfect storm does happen along. l F O N Keith Reid 8 MAY 2015 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com Membership applied for January 2014 The flipside of social media