Reputation Expert's Career Over After Social Media Outrage

When I first read this Business Insider interview with Saatchi and Saatchi's chairman Kevin Roberts about gender diversity, I was surprised by his statements and his admission that he doesn't spend any time on gender issues.  If these comments were made in 2006 and not 2016 I don't believe they would have led to his ouster.

What has changed in the past 10 years?  The ubiquity of social media and other digital platforms that can make you the most popular person in the world one minute and the biggest a@#$)*e the next. In the Social Media Age, any comment in either the physical or digital world has the potential to damage one's personal and professional reputation.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Kevin Roberts was due to retire in May 2017 before his Business Insider interview was published.  However, that changed quickly after social media users re-tweeted the Business Insider article and other media outlets picked up the story.

Before agreeing to an interview or appearance on any traditional or digital platform it is important to properly prepare. I regularly speak to the media and counsel clients on how to interact with journalists.  Not everyone is ready for the attention that may occur after they are interviewed about an issue.

Your reputation may forever be negatively altered by one wrong statement to the media or Tweet. There may also be tremendous legal consequences involved when you speak to the media or post online so when you are unsure about what to do don't forget this famous saying:  "better to remain silent and thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt".

Copyright 2016 by Bradley S. Shear, Esq. All rights reserved.    

Online Reputation: Will Miss Teen USA Lose Her Crown Over Tweets?

The Miss Teen USA pageant is currently in the middle of a social media crisis.  According to CNN, soon after Karlie Hay won the pageant on Saturday night it was uncovered that in 2013 and 2014 she had made multiple posts on Twitter that used a racial slur towards African-Americans.

Ms. Hay quickly apologized when asked about the racial slurs on her Twitter account and subsequently made her Twitter account private.  While this is a good initial response, it is too soon to determine if this will be enough to avoid a forced resignation.  

As of this writing, the pageant is still behind Ms. Hay.  However, I don't want to speculate what the pageant organizers will do if there is a groundswell of pressure to strip Ms. Hay of her title that was not anticipated. When I advise clients about similar issues there are many factors at play.  Legal, financial, and reputation issues are intertwined in the Social Media Age so organizations generally don't have a lot of time to make a decision.

Over the years, there have been several instances where a pageant winner was forced to resign after winning. The most famous occurred in 1984, when Vanessa Williams resigned as Miss America for posing nude before she was crowned Ms. America. According to Time Magazine, Ms. Williams was given the impression the photos would be in silhouette form and she would not be identifiable. Unfortunately, Ms. Williams signed a model release which enabled the photographer to do whatever he wanted with the photos which included selling them to Penthouse Magazine.

Old Facebook posts and Tweets are regularly held against students when applying to schools and job applicants when applying for employment. The bottom line is that you must be careful about how you carry yourself in both the physical and digital world to ensure that you don't harm your reputation and the reputation of others.     

Copyright 2016 by Bradley S. Shear, Esq. All rights reserved.