It takes a hardened individual not to pity poor Murphy, from whom the eponymous “fourth law of thermodynamics” takes its name. However, those of us that deal with crisis see the adage in practice on a surprisingly regular basis. Which brings me to a conundrum. Twitter.



In Canada there are 413 parliamentarians (including the house and senate) many of whom are on Twitter. The United States there are 441 Congressional representatives (including the non-voting members) and 100 Senators. Many of them are on Twitter. And then there are all kinds of other accounts that attract attention: provincial representatives, state representatives, municipal leaders, Fortune 500 executives , celebrities, and professional athletes. In very short order, there’s a very long list of influential (or at least verbose) people on Twitter. Not to get too drawn into numbers, but an aggregated numbers of followers for this list of prominent tweetistes would be pretty sizable. This seems like a row of dynamite fuses, waiting to explode – given the spontaneity and unfiltered nature of the medium. Yet somehow, for the most part it’s not. What is interesting is the capacity of Twitterverse to self-regulate. The scandals have been largely notable for their absence. 

In the last post on this blog, I referred to the theft of Ontario PC Candidate George Lepp’s blackberry, and noted that, by the time of posting, Representative Anthony Weiner had come clean about the source of the blue photos on his Twitter account. The big political twitter scandal in Canada was over a stolen blackberry, while the big political twitter scandal in the United States was classic bad judgement.

So let’s recap: there are a lot of opinionated people on Twitter; these people have a lot of followers; their followers care what they are tweeting; in the context, which one would think would be ripe for scandal, is somehow avoiding scandals.

It begs the question of just what seems to keeping Ol’ Murphy in check. Why is it that in this setting we are not seeing near-daily Twitter scandals? Let me offer two theories, both of which are purely speculative.



One of the key ways in which Twitter is unlike traditional print, television or radio media is that followers self-select. Most Canadians consumer their news based on the local or national offerings: radio, television, and newspaper. They also consume news online in a more selective, less geographically bound setting. However, whether their news is being delivered online or through traditional sources, the news itself is pitched to a pretty broad audience. Twitter, on the other hand, is considerably more targeted. Followers cherry-pick those people they are interested in and want to hear from. Likewise, those posting have a tacit understanding that while their entire feed is public, they are speaking to “their people.” This allows for a shorthand in the social media conversation that makes it clear that these comments are targeted.

The second reason – for the lack of regular Twitter disasters – is considerably more speculative. People are surprisingly aware of the risk that Twitter poses. Emails, text messaging, Facebook, AIM and ICQ all pre-date Twitter, and these media have taught lot of people about the value of impulse control in recordable electronic mediums. However, this natural filtering process creates an inherent tension with social media. Its designers want it to seem like a natural extension of our “real lives.” On one level, Twitter can seem like being at a great cocktail party filled with only the people you’re interested in. But it’s an implicitly self-aware cocktail party, where the participants realize that everything they say is being recorded and is accessible to anyone with an internet connection. It makes people careful about what they say. While every so often someone pulls a Gilbert Gottfried most people – especially those with a degree of social prominence – are relatively restrained.

To use an imperfect analogy, social media is like a thoroughbred: it’s very fast, direct and but somewhat unpredictable, and if you’re not careful, it can get away on you. Fortunately for most people they are wary.

These observations are purely speculative, and could change tomorrow, and it remains to be seen if this is a quirk or a pattern.

Navigator regularly works with leading firms both domestically and internationally to develop a social media presence that not only minimizes risk, but also is interactive and engaging at the right time and place.