Peter Kafka

Recent Posts by Peter Kafka

Take This Job, Shove It, Post About It on Facebook

Social media is awesome for brands and people who think they are brands, because it lets them talk directly to their fans. No filter. How great is that?

Except when it turns out they need a filter.

Chris Brown, for instance, probably shouldn’t be using Twitter without supervision. But we keep seeing evidence that Professional Social Media Users can also use some help.

Latest example: A message that showed up on the Montana Office of Tourism’s Facebook page last Friday for a brief period: “F this job. I just want to live in Whitefish with my future husband. Leaving Bozeman for good tomorrow […] Thanks for the good times MercuryCSC!”

Turns out the message was left by a former employee of MercuryCSC, the Bozeman-based “creative strategic communications” agency that was heading up social for Montana’s tourism office. The agency has apologized and “is no longer performing social media work” for the state.

You can get the blow-by-blow from Becker’s Online Journal, via AdWeek. If you’re in the mood to see more public flame-outs from people who are paid to know better, check out this excellent Digiday listicle.

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Just as the atom bomb was the weapon that was supposed to render war obsolete, the Internet seems like capitalism’s ultimate feat of self-destructive genius, an economic doomsday device rendering it impossible for anyone to ever make a profit off anything again. It’s especially hopeless for those whose work is easily digitized and accessed free of charge.

— Author Tim Kreider on not getting paid for one’s work