The Facebook Cheater – Practicing Public Relations for your Personal Life
Facebook has become the Internet’s social cesspool for all things good and bad, the basis of how we relate. I wonder how 50 years from now how this technology will evolve and change the public discourse – will people expect more or less privacy? Will we get accustomed to all the details of our daily lives documented by everyone we know? Will we form and manage all relationships with others? I suspect many of us already do, and we take Facebook awful seriously.
South Park recently aired an episode I watched online maybe a week or two ago.
Then unexpectedly this hilarious conversation fell into my lap (Note: explicit language):
Careful not to piss off or embarrass others – you’ll find your antics broadcast online for all to see. And, to add a little salt to the wounds, Facebook will taunt you with ironic advertising.
I can think of three ways to look at this, all of which have the answer “Yes”. Instant revenge for bad behavior? An irresponsible use of Facebook to gossip private information? Hilarious for everyone else?
I think eventually all schools will have to teach a basic Public Relations course about how to manage your own reputation. Many of the same rules apply. I took a PR course in college, and while PR isn’t really what I do here are some thoughts I had:
1) Always respond to crisis – (ones that can hurt others because of your wrongdoing and damage your reputation. And by reputation, I do not mean your Facebook friends.)
2) Know when to admit when you’re wrong – Failure whether real or perceived is normal. You move past it and move on. The world is often far more forgiving than we give it credit for. Not to mention, while I don’t think it’s very healthy, the “sound bite” nature of the Facebook/Twitterverse is very limited in how we discuss our lives, so whoever reads them is likely to just move past it without much thought to the past. Admit it when you’re wrong and move on with life. It’s the responsible and mature thing to do.
3) Don’t Assume Control – In any type of PR crisis you have little control over the perception of things. Don’t assume you have control of everything said or involving yourself. How you react to these things and your level of influence is going to make a difference in perception, and onlookers are only going to listen to you if you are present and truthful. The public will always judge, and nobody likes dishonesty, deception, or one who hides in the shadows.
4) Speak Directly to your Audience – Don’t simply react, you’ll only achieve in amusing everyone else despite how dire the situation may be for you. Speak directly to everyone else and keep your story simple and straight. Let your audience know they can reach you and how.
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May 10th, 2010 at 9:22 am
Awesome. I love this. Before posting something to Facebook, you really should ask yourself… Will I be OK with this a year from now. If this answer is NO, then don’t post. If you are unsure, then don’t post. If the answer is YES, you maybe still shouldn’t post it… ’cause no one cares what you had for breakfast.