Social Media Observations: Ray Rice & the NFL
Co-authored by: Patrick Gray
PR nightmares are beautiful opportunities for us to watch and learn about responding appropriately on social media channels. It’s always easier to be the observer, viewing the situation objectively, grimacing over the poor PR moves and taking notes of the graceful recoveries.
So… Ray Rice. What a hot mess. I’m not here to voice my opinion on domestic violence, but rather state some basic rules on social grace and the blunders of PR’s smoke and mirrors. Here are 5 lessons I’ve learned from the Ray Rice debacle:
- If there’s evidence, come clean from the start. Someone will always be there to take you down. If there’s no evidence and you’re the only one that knows what happened, feel free to take your secret to the grave at the expense of your soul.
- Give yourself a chance to calm down before you react. Twitter is beautiful because it’s basically a stream-of-consciousness feed. Don’t tweet anything you’re going to regret, because there is no such thing as “delete” from the internet. This leads me to lesson 3:
- Don’t “delete” any posts. If you said something terrible, I would recommend you reply back to it with a graceful apology. Contact your PR agency for help with this one.
- Don’t drag down anyone else in your downward spiral. I.e. Don’t tweet that Janay said that it was her fault. Social media is a judgemental, merciless crocodile pit that fancies itself as a saint working for the greater good. Both personas are valid. Come out as the better person by protecting the other parties involved. At best, people might take pity on you.
- How would grandma respond? (Unless she is/was mean and bitter). Seniors tend to have perspective, and grew up with a strict moral compass that stinks of politeness and manners. Take a page out of their book.
