Down in the bunker

Those of us involved in the communications business have, of course, been having a field day watching the public unraveling of the reputation of Tiger Woods. Not that the rest of you have exactly been standing aside, aloof and uninterested. One of my friends is opening a book at her office on how high the number of mistresses will go. But it's rare to see a media icon fall quite so spectacularly and quite so quickly from quite such a height. It's not just that his marriage is on the rocks; it's his career, including all that endorsement work; all that media presence. Those of us who travel regularly may well be relieved at the idea that we will no longer be assailed by life-sized images of Tiger doing nine impossible things before breakfast, as it were, in every airport breezeway, but it's a salutary reminder that a reputation can be demolished in a single day.

By the way, you'll notice that I don't say "in this age where a person's image is more precarious than ever," or some such nonsense. I'm getting very tired of hearing that we're living in a time of faster change than ever before. It's such a load of arse, if you'll forgive my Scottish roots. My grandfather lived through the introduction of electricity, the telegraph, motor cars, women's suffrage, and antibiotics, along with a fistful of wars and the landing on the moon. Are you seriously going to tell me that a small screen sitting on your desk is forcing more change in how we interact with each other than any single one of those things? I think not! Neither can it be scientifically measured whether we are more vulnerable to bad-mouthing and spin than before. Four hundred years ago, in London, reputations were similarly made and destroyed overnight by the distribution of pamphlets; often anonymous, scurrilous ones. If you want a truly culture-shaking change in technology, try the wide availability of affordable printing, dude. And gossip, frankly, needs no technological boost to bring a good man down. Shakespeare wasn't just making something up when he had Cassio proclaim in Othello: "Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial."

We gawp and Google and Tweet and text with pretty much the same prurient intentions as the rabble in the Jacobean marketplace, just with shinier toys (I will concede this - things do seem to have gotten a lot shinier in this age, although, again, I'm tempted to point to the court of Montezuma, 500 years ago...). The real question I try to address in these blogs is: Does this have any use in my business?

We're in the middle of a backlash against a backlash against a backlash when it comes to the idea of whether social media should form a supporting pillar of your public relations and marketing temple. Business Week this week decided that we should all "Beware Social Media Snake Oil." Frankly, I don't think we need a feature in Business Week to meditate on whether this stuff might all be woven by invisible tailors. I came across a much more interesting piece of research recently, at an outfit called Catalyst Inc. - a not-for-profit organization in New York that offers research and advocacy related to women in business. What Catalyst found is that, while this recession has been relatively even-handed in depriving middle-management men and women of their jobs, women at CEO and VP level have been toppling like ninepins. In an admittedly small study of high-potential MBa graduates, Catalyst found that women in upper management were three times more likely to get laid off in the last 18 months than their male counterparts. And why? Looking at other Catalyst research, I get the impression that one of the main reasons is that women don't, or are unable to, harness the power of networking in their corporate careers. By the time they get to the top, they're often lone wolves, unsupported by the web of mentors, champions, and patrons their male colleagues enjoy. When it comes time for the chop, you want as many friends in high places as you can get. Weirdly, professional women often lack such advocates.

To me, the message is clear. Social networking, whether over drinks or via Blackberry, is what we should all be doing more of, not just to make our lives more rich and interesting, but to boost our career trajectories. It's the Holiday season. Pick up the phone and make a lunch date with your favorite client or customer, and get him or her to bring along some buddies. Reconnect with that guy you went to college with who runs his own tech startup. Put up a LinkedIn page; a Facebook page. Start blogging. Start Tweeting. Get out there. Nothing's changed, really. We're all intensely interested in one another, and human after all.

Right, I'm off to scrawl something obscene on a Tiger poster. Happy Holidays.