3 Important Facts About Twitter

Twitter has become a public relations juggernaut. It allows you to create a following of people to consistently send messages to about your business efforts. But as with any public relations effort, you must be careful what you say, especially about your competitors or other business leaders.

Reality TV Star Kim Kardashian may be learning that saying something negative about a product on Twitter could lead to litigation.

It seems that Kardashian allegedly made disparaging comments about a diet program that rivals one that she is being paid to promote.

Doctor and author Sanford Siegal, D.O., M.D., creator Dr. Siegal’s COOKIE DIET®, issued a press release in December 2009 stating he filed a lawsuit against Kardashian because she allegedly stated in a Twitter post on October 29, 2009 that she would never do Siegal’s diet because she deemed it “unhealthy”. In that same post, she allegedly named another diet program that she does follow, which coincidentally is one that she is paid to endorse.

It seems this whole PR mess started with a link on Siegal’s website to an article on a third party media website that allegedly alluded that Kardashian was some how associated with Siegal’s diet program.

Allegedly, Kardashian’s legal counsel asked Siegal via a written letter to remove the link from his website because it made it seem like Kardashian endorsed his diet. Siegal’s legal counsel argued that they were merely “linking” to an article published on a third party media website as they do with other “press clips” that mention his products.

Unfortunately, this saga may now cost both sides some serious money in legal fees.

This dispute brings up three very important facts to remember about publicity:

1. Never PUBLICLY disparage a specific person, product or service for your own personal gain

2.  Never use the image or name of a celebrity in association with your company without permission

3. Everything you say on Twitter is a matter of public record

In college, I took an ethics in journalism course (btw, the book was quite thin) and one of the things I remember that was deemed unethical was using the image of a known public figure without his/her permission to endorse a product.

No matter how many lawsuits have gone to court, there is always somebody who feels they can get away with it. My advice: don’t even think about it.

Always remember that what you say in any public venue can come back to haunt you, so do so with caution.

– Shakira