Ahhh Telstra Did u learn the lesson?

Leslie Nassar is a senior manager at Telstra. He’s also the person behind the Twitter’s Fake Stephen Conroy.

Telstra has a social media consultant Mr Mike Hickinbotham and he talks through Telstra’s blog – http://www.nowwearetalking.com.au/

You can read a better coverage on Mumbrella.

Leslie, the fake Stephen Conroy, is asked by Telstra to stop doing Twitter. Telstra initially denies this, then later they came back and say – yes, we did it.

Telstra’s attempts to cover up the fact that it tried to silence the Fake Stephen Conroy has backfired spectacularly.

Cameron Reilly on comments at “now we are talking” Telstra’s blog- “So your original statement was both factually correct and factually incorrect at the same time? Is that your way of saying it was wrong? ” great!

I tried for the last 2 hours to place a comment on Telstra’s blog, but it was impossible.

I tried to fill out the subscriptions form (a.k.a. job application) but this is what I got

“Now we are talking”? ………..probably talking too much and they’ve forgotten to listen….

Anyway, my view about the facts.

1) Mr. Mike Hickinbotham on his first post asks:

“Here’s the question I propose for discussion – if Leslie worked for a ad agency would the tone and nature of the conversation be the same or different?”

What sort of stupid questions is this?

Of course it would be different! Not better or worse just different! Gosh, of course.

It’s like asking if Michael Phelps marijuana’ episode would be different if he was a rock star!

Ok, let’s get over this.

“Luckily Telstra was already pretty advanced in developing policies for social media. If other corporates haven’t begun writing their policies, this illustrates it’s time to do so now.”

So Telstra, you think you’re ‘pretty advanced’? Somehow I doubt it..

Did you Google your company this morning?

Give a try

Did you measure the outcome of your mess Telstra?

Listen

Most major change initiatives-whether intended to boost quality, improve culture, or reverse a corporate death spiral-generate only lukewarm results. Many fail miserably.

Why?

Mr. Phillip Kottler maintains that too many managers don’t realise transformation is a process, not an event.

It advances through stages that build on each other. And it takes years. Pressured to accelerate the process, managers skip stages. But shortcuts never work.

We live in an age of unprecedented opportunity: If you’ve got ambition, drive, and smarts, you can rise to the top.

Personally I think that people who rush in throwing stones and criticizing companies that try to keep the interaction under control are so full of shit.

Social Media created lots of opportunities both for companies and employees. But with opportunity comes responsibility. We must each be our own Chief Executive Officer and be liable for our acts.

“Free time”, “Different personalities” – that’s all very beautiful in theory – the reality is you are the company you are representing. In this case even worse because Mr Leslie was in a senior position.

Question - What happens with all the theory if Telstra loses money because of an employee shares information (through social media) he has because of his position?

In earlier eras, companies told business people what their contribution should be. Today, business people have a much broader range of choices and they need to be accountable for their choices.

Big ideas come from tackling big problems.

Much of today’s most valuable management knowledge came from wrestling with such issues.

I bet my ass Telstra and Leslie Nassar have now learned a valuable lesson,

Cheers

Lucio Ribeiro

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