Man’s Handheld Survives Memphis Meltdown

It’s rare, but sometimes flies get caught in the social media honey.
There are two such stories floating today. One involves a man who murdered his wife after she changed her status from “Married” to “Single” on Facebook. Marshall Kirkpatrick at ReadWriteWeb has the goods on that one.
The other story is about a PR guy’s unwise use of Twitter and how that came back to bite him and his agency on the ass.
According to journalist David Henderson, James Andrews, a Vice President at Ketchum Interactive in Atlanta flew to Memphis to visit FedEx, one of his agency’s biggest clients. His mission was to talk with the corporate communications people at FedEx about social media. However, upon landing in Memphis, Andrews posted this message on Twitter:

True confession but I’m in one of those towns where I scratch my head and say, ‘I would die if I had to live here.’

Someone in corporate communications at FedEx saw the update on Twitter and it set off a negative reaction within the freight company, as might be expected.
Andrews, a.k.a. The Key Influencer claims that he meant no disrespect and that the Tweet was in response to one “intolerant individual.” Andrews argues that the 140 character limit imposed by Twitter “does not allow for context” and therefore his comments were “misunderstood.”
The bottom line is colleagues and clients are listening. If your name’s on it, it pays to exercise restraint and be professional.