Perspectives & Strategy

It is not uncommon to see bad language on social media channels. To certain users it seems cool to swear or bad-mouth others, so much so that every sentence is almost deliberately structured to shock. Swearing and bad language are detestable, but can be understood, on occasion, in a social setting.

What is deplorable is when it is used in a corporate setting. In the case this morning one software company calling another something that should not be repeated.

Now, we all know that businesses are in competition with each other, but even the fiercest of competitors should always be civil to each other in public. Yes, we all know that internally there are slang names for the other organisation and they are well known to each group. Despite temptation these details should be kept private. There is never a reason to use such names in public under any circumstances. To do so on social media is to let the world, including, of course, your customers, know that you have no respect for the decency of others. How can your customers trust you if you are publicly disrespectful to the competition?

Was this morning’s post a slip of the tongue? Most are, yet that matters little as most things on the web tend to be permanent, especially when posted on Twitter or Facebook. So this little rant about etiquette is over, will people listen? That is questionable but undoubtedly it will make future articles too.