Our responsibility of course, but he does have a moral obligation to?

Thanks for the great story

Cheers
Stephen

Blows your freaking mind, doesn’t it?

@Jeremy Thanks! Chinese firewall (is that PC?) is def important. I think you won’t have a problem with my new firm–that is, you haven’t written anything (that I’m aware of) that is derogatory

@Adam I created all the accounts for SHIFT under my SHIFT email addy. When I left, I gave those to SHIFT. On most of the “social media assets” there was always someone also with log-in info. You do make points about saying goodbye. We will probably have more Community Managers who might have “Bennifer” break-ups–all in the public eye!

@Doug – so you know,I’ve learned my lesson. We’ll be taking hideously embarrassing photos of you, and you will be held hostage in case a similar circumstance arises.

@Jeremy – no shit, that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me. Thank you.

@Adam – you take the prize for mind-shattering comment. There’s another blog post in there somewhere. Thanks for lending your smarts to this forum!

Companies tend to put younger people in such roles, sometimes even people in their first career-level job. This is in part because the younger demographic tends to be more familiar with social media, and in part because many companies aren’t yet willing to commit a lot of resources to such roles.

So for 1-2 years they get someone enthusiastically participating in social media on their behalf, but then inevitability that person takes a new job or even just decides they want to do something else.

This is causing companies to question who owns the profiles and relationships built up on company time, and if or how any of that is transferable to another employee. For example a Facebook profile is certainly not transferable, but what about a profile on a social news site with a general name like “SportsFan”?

However transferability is often in violation of a social news site’s terms of service, not to mention the fact that all of SportsFan’s “friends” have a right to know they are no longer interacting with the same person. But if the transfer wasn’t a TOS violation and the handover was done transparently, would that be ok?

Whether it’s your situation with Chris or the one I just described, maybe a long-term corporate social media strategy needs to be sort of like the farm system in baseball. Some superstars will always leave to free agency and others will eventually retire, so you have to keep a fresh crop of prospects coming through the system.

DougH leaving his firm hurt.
Me leaving my firm hurt.
Others leaving their firms – it would hurt.

I think you guys will be fine (not that it’s not going to hurt), but there was a good Chinese wall there for you.

Congrats to Chris – well, if I like the firm – and you have the good foundation at your firm to be fine.

I am also on-board with the mix of personal and professional branding, and the need to let go when needed (and not just when someone leaves. My blog lament this morning about a god-awful Beatles cover CD is not going to add much to the SHIFT legacy).

Letting go is the hardest part, and companies need to decide up-front where the lines between “your” and “ours” are drawn in case of a parting. For example, I would not take content I produced for the official Topaz Partners blog (www.techprgems.com) back to my blog without permission. some companies may have even more formal or strict policies, and it is up to them to communicate it.

The most important part is back to what Todd did with Chris: encourage, promote, let it grow– and unfortunately, at times,. let it go.

Good luck Chris!

Todd: You’ve been a great mentor before and during my time at SHIFT. I’m honored to have worked with you! I look forward to seeing SHIFT continue to bring innovation to the industry!

For more on my time at SHIFT and the friends I made there, please see this post: http://socialtnt.com/2008/08/13/make-new-friends-but-keep-the-old/

Best,

Chris

Best of luck, Chris. I’ve never stumbled onto your blog, but if Todd says it’s good stuff, I’ll be sure to check it out. Go grab the world by the…uh, yeah….go get ‘em.