How I Nearly Cooked My Goose!

I’ve always been a huge fan of social media and in particular LinkedIn, it’s definitely played a part in Autorama’s growth and is an an excellent outlet for me personally to show the amazing work my team do on a daily basis. 

Before I go on though, I know some people bemoan the fact that LinkedIn, has become too much like Facebook and moan that it “should only be a professional networking site” - they need to get over it, it is social media.

But like all social media, you have to know who your audience is, and remember that posting the wrong thing can quickly escalate. I found this out last week when I forgot to follow my own advice and things quickly got out of hand. 

In particular I enjoy LinkedIn as a platform to showcase talent, success and to cultivate intelligent debate on hot topics in business in general. For those of you that follow me you’ll know I try not to pull any punches with my opinions and at times I will take it close to the line. 

 On Friday I posted a video which showed some of my staff coming into work in Canada Goose jackets with the caption “when you know you’re paying your team well”.

Unfortunately, whilst I had lots of supportive comments, I also got a lot of negative feedback, particularly as my post was interpreted as supporting animal cruelty. 

 Let me be clear on two things: 

 1) I do not advocate brands that create products in an inhumane or unethical manner. And I abhor all animal cruelty.

2) What my employees choose to spend their hard-earned money is up to them.

 With that said sometimes on social media you can be too clever for your own good and it’s at these times you find out where the “line” is. Sometimes I’ll get it right and other times not and although the comments on my post were fairly split, on reflection I think my post crossed that “line”.

 It was never my intention to offend anyone nor flaunt wealth. What I intended to do was to showcase the amazing people we have at Autorama and how hard they work. I’m proud to watch them achieve their ambitions – whatever those may be - and do well for themselves. I will never shy away from that. 

 However, the tone and content of the post did not reflect what I wanted it to. I recognise I missed the mark. I believe strongly in honesty, integrity and holding your hands up if you’re wrong. I’m sorry to anyone who took offence. 

 I’m a firm believer in freedom of speech and I love the healthy debates I have with everyone on LinkedIn regularly. I’ll continue to do this going forward but with a much more considered approach.