From a brand-strategist point of view, Mike Sharman advises two potential routes:
You’re either a “fuck that” personality or you’re not. Rachel Kolisi is a good example of someone who stuck to her position. But you have to weather the storm. Yes, it’ll be noisy but it will eventually be done.
Or, you have to man up [sic] and say, “I fucked up, sorry guys”. Someone screen-grabbed it already. Once it is out there, it’s out there. Don’t delete it – that makes it look like you’re covering it up. If you wouldn’t want to see a post on the front page of a newspaper, then why are you putting it out? Some people are controversial for controversy’s sake. The true test is always, even on WhatsApp, are you willing for this to go on the most public platform you can imagine? If not, don’t type it. Anywhere.
Katinka Oosthuizen can speak about experiencing deception and forgiving on a public platform like Survivor, which is known for high stakes, back-stabbing and tribe politics.
Own it. Admit to it. Ask for forgiveness. Don’t try to explain that it isn’t how you meant it, though. I would almost forgive someone anything if they just own who they are and what they do. If you honestly don’t feel like you did anything wrong, stand by that as well, but then prepare for the fact that you might lose people in the process. That’s why you need to be yourself.
Nashville-based lifestyle blogger and influencer Tiffany Mitchell (@tifforelie) found this out the hard way when she shared photographs of her motorcycle accident on Instagram. Eventually she deleted the photos, but not before screenshots were posted to buzzfeed.com and she had become a cautionary tale. One photo featured a bottle of SmartWater positioned prominently in the foreground, and many critics questioned whether this accident was staged for the sake of undisclosed sponsorship.
Would this post have blown up in quite the same way if she had simply omitted the photo with the water bottle? Perhaps, but what if the bad taste was actually left by the fact that she seemed to hit the sympathy engagement button? Did she do this, at least in part, to boost the metrics of a professionally run influencer account? Cynical, yes. But, either way, she was so overwhelmed by the negative responses to the post that she deleted it and followed it up with a long and detailed explanation, denying the accusations of commercialisation and product placement:
When I work with brands, they’re ones I personally enjoy, and I disclose every single sponsorship. Accusing someone of faking or exploiting an accident is extremely serious – because what if you’re wrong? It really happened to me, and I was scared ... When I found out my professional photographer friend, who[m] I’d been shooting with earlier, took photos of everything, I was completely moved. I shared this on my feed with humans who have been on a journey with me for years because I knew they would understand what it meant to me and I understood what it would mean to them. I’m sad that something so true and personal has been treated this way, and disappointed in BuzzFeed for spinning it there. I would just ask that if you’re here because of this, consider that the post I made was something real that happened in my life, that resonated deeply with me and those who have chosen to follow me. That’s what it was intended for.
Mitchell also instructed an attorney to write to BuzzFeed to demand that the report with the screen grabs of the post be taken down, but the website stood by its reporting on the incident and it is still there. That’s why there is no point in deleting a post that blew up for the wrong reasons, unless the content is defamatory or downright criminal (for example, if it injures the dignity of an individual or a group of people). Apologise, by all means, but nothing you create on the Internet truly ever goes away.
You need to take a beat to decide if it is more important to you, in that moment, to be right or to win. In many instances you won’t be right and win. Proving that you were right to post what you did will not necessarily result in a long-term win for your business – as much as you might feel vindicated.
Often, it requires great maturity and some patience to allow yourself to take the momentary hit that being “wrong” inflicts on your ego and dignity, in favour of winning the long game. When you have made a mistake, particularly when working with a brand, apologise if you were wrong and do what you can to rectify matters, if possible. Don’t delete, don’t pretend it didn’t happen, don’t deny that it did, and definitely do not fight with your haters – unless trolling haters is part of your brand position, as in the case of James Blunt’s Twitter account.
Risky business
Brands are notoriously risk-averse. Holding extremely outspoken religious, political, moral or ethical opinions will certainly polarise not only your followers, but also the brands who are attracted and those who are repelled by your feed. This seems like a no-brainer, right? Yet, there is another side to this. To some followers, your strong opinions and tendency to court controversy could read as authentic – you are someone who stands up for what you believe and someone who displays integrity.
Bouwer is open about the fact that his reconciliation-above-all approach has cost him money; it is something he is refreshingly open about.
When we were busy with preproduction on our movie Thys & Trix in 2017, one of our major sponsors pulled R100 000 in funding from the project because of my outspokenness on the topic of reconciliation. And that was fair game – people can do with their money as they please. But our country is bigger than what happens in the
