Ignoring Social Media at your own Peril:

As I am continuously trying to tell people and companies, we are now living in a very brave new world of Social Media and Word of Mouth viral marketing, which we ignore at our own peril, transport for London have just been involved in a Classic Case/Example of this, which I really do feel needs highlighting.

A London Underground worker who was seen yelling at an elderly passenger in a video was forced to resigned from his job because of a have a go citizen journalist and his very slick use of Social Media and word of mouth marketing, it is a very real story the we all should be now taking notice of ,  just in case our companies fall foul of the same set of circumstances, do you know what your staff are Facebooking or Twittering let alone what they are posting on YouTube.

Transport for London said Ian Morbin, a customer service assistant, handed in his resignation over the incident at Holborn station on 15 October.

Mr Morbin has apologised but TfL said the behaviour was "unacceptable".

The video shows him calling the man "a jumped up little git" and "little girl" before apparently threatening to "sling him under the train".

The statement said: "Mr Ian Morbin, a Customer Service Assistant at Holborn Tube station, has advised London Underground that he wished resign because of the incident.

Arm stuck

The incident was captured on video by businessman Jonathan McDonald, a fellow commuter at the central London station.

Describing his version of events leading up to the scene, Mr McDonald said the elderly man had got his arm stuck in the door of the train.

When the victim told the Tube worker what had happened, he was sworn at three times in an attempt to make him stand behind the yellow line, he said.

Mr Morbin can be heard threatening to call the police to deal with the passenger, who is understood to have done nothing wrong.

Mr. McDonald posted the video on YouTube and then put up a Tweet about it and the rest is history as they say, 203,421 views later and god only knows how many Re-Tweets and the game is up so to speak.  I can see this type of thing, happening again and again from now on,  after all we have already seen the damage when  a pop star or country and western singer from Nashville gets caught doing cocaine, once that goes viral in this day and age that is his career effectively finished before it even gets started.  Well now it can happen in the general world of employment.

After the footage emerged London Mayor Boris Johnson put a response on Twitter saying he was "appalled by the video".

So if your now worried about how this Brave new world of Social Media, and how the rise of the citizen journalist could effect your company, please get in touch with us so we can advise you on how not to fall foul of it, our legal dept is expert and has long term experience of social media policy and contract writing to protect your company from any little incidents like this.  Anyway have a look for yourself and see what you think, the actual video is posted below, Regards….. Ashe, IT Bloke – London.