Saturday 24 March 2018

Is Elon Musk a cowboy CEO to delete Facebook?: Blog #325

Is Elon Musk a cowboy CEO to delete Facebook?


Elon Musk of Tesla deletes the Facebook pages of himself, Tesla and SpaceX. I think it is a tad bit foolish of him to do that. If he wanted to show that he is taking a stand, he could have deleted the Facebook profile that belonged to himself. Deleting the Facebook pages of both the firms is impulse and drama without any reason.


I feel this is a classic case of a CEO thinking he knows everything to know about anything there is. I am sure there is a team that manages the social media account of Tesla and Space X. He should have consulted them. It doesn’t look like that consultation happened. Reason being the FB pages were deleted in 20 minutes after Elon Musk’s Tweet. Any social media team worth its salt would have resisted this move. The resistance wouldn’t have come to an agreement in 20 minutes if there was a constructive discussion unless Musk is surrounded by Yes men.

Anyone who knows something about managing a Facebook page will know that having a corporate page is a huge advantage. In any firm, sooner or later things go a bit unright. I am not saying wrong, but unright (somewhere between right and wrong). In such instances, you need all the avenues at your disposal to clarify where you stand as a firm and what your explanation about the situation is. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIN and other social media channels come handy in situations like this.

Tesla and SpaceX are much loved and admired firms. There is considerable interest among the general public about both the organizations. People like to know what the firms are up to and the media of the day is social media. If you expect everyone to visit the firms’ websites and understand what they are up to, that is a bit foolish and presumptuous.

Add to that the fact that Tesla and SpaceX are both commercial firms. They don’t exist just for furthering research and science. There is a business aspect to both the firms. In such a situation, why would you take such a reckless step that risks your connect with your potential customers?

After the above knee jerk reaction, Musk has kept himself and Tesla in the news through multiple missteps. Be it announcing taking the firm private on Twitter or the spat with a diver -rescuer, Elon can do with a bit of good old "restraint". 

May the light of ‘Social’ wisdom shine on Elon Musk soon!

1 comment:

  1. Elon Musk is a breath of fresh air in today's monotonous, copy culture and lazy world. He is a strong thinker and his rationale is clear. Neither of his companies benefit from having a Facebook page, they neither advertise or expect sales related queries. The fact that he wasn't even aware of their existence shows the kind of importance it has. Maybe the world has been too obsessed with Facebook that imagining anything out of it seems illogical and brash. I for one Love the fact that he did it. I'm sure there's enough work for his social media team other than managing Facebook pages.

    ReplyDelete