Your social media outrage is not having the desired effect.
A few weeks back I posted this thread about my disillusionment with the ANC.
Except it wasn't 100% true. I didn’t vote for the ANC in 2014.
So why would I lie?
Well, it was a bit of an experiment ...
A few weeks back I posted this thread about my disillusionment with the ANC.
Except it wasn't 100% true. I didn’t vote for the ANC in 2014.
So why would I lie?
Well, it was a bit of an experiment ...
For context: I’ve spent the last 15 years helping corporate brands navigate the opportunities and challenges of social media. More recently my focus has shifted to digital leadership, but crisis management is and was a significant part of both. I know crises better than most.
With more than 100 cases under my belt (many of which you watched unfold online), I’ve noticed that 7 out of 10 times, social media outrage has precisely the opposite impact to what detractors hope. i.e., it actually serves the brands under attack rather than damages them!
I originally scripted that tweet with the truth – that I had voted DA in 2014 in no small part due to the leadership (or absence thereof) of then president Zuma. But social media doesn’t reward the middle ground. It thrives on extremes and absolutes. Social media is not reality.
What would happen if I said I had voted ANC in 2014? I decided to risk it and find out. The results were fascinating. The thread went viral, with hundreds of people taking serious issue with my admission. I even had two people threaten my personal safety. That was a first.
90% of the accounts who took issue with me were anonymous. It’s easy to show conviction when you have no accountability. My best was a chap who had a full go at me, not realising his colleague was DMing me to tell me his real name. His website lists SA government as a client.
If the personality of social media is extremism, bigotry is its DNA.
The viral thread sent a spike in traffic to my website and newsletter, and a ton of subscribers to my podcast. I received three paid speaking inquiries. Two are going ahead. By my calculations, the angry anonymous persons that had a rant effectively paid me R680 each. 
Almost every week, we see another brand being taken to task online for perceived injustices. Some of these cases are completely valid. Some are blown out of proportion. Unfortunately, the facts of the case seldom matter.
In any case, there are tangible (commercial) implications to a crisis, and intangible ones. But there are also unintended consequences. The old adage that there is no such thing as bad publicity is not 100% true, but certainly holds out in my experience.
Brands and the businesses behind them absolutely need to be held accountable for prejudice and discrimination. But they seldom are as a result of social media outrage.
Let me tell you what probably will happen though ...
Let me tell you what probably will happen though ...
1. A handful of junior employees, either at the brand in question or at the agency responsible for the creative, will be unfairly blamed for the faux pas and likely lose their jobs.
2. Innocent employees of the companies affected will go to work terrified, afraid for their job security or even for their lives. This is in no small part due to the irresponsible actions of political players and media outlets who seek to use these moments to score points.
3. The people who really should be challenged for their role in these decisions are often exonerated, protected by power or privilege, and will retreat deeper into their echo chambers. This makes the problem worse, not better.
I promise you - no political party or media house really cares about robust conversations about equality and representation. They care about your eyeballs, your clicks, your votes, and your Rands - which are all highly correlated with your outrage.
THIS IS WHY brands still make these mistakes and errors in judgement on a daily basis. It's because your social media outrage has perverse effects, and because nobody who should be is actually being held accountable.
Anyways, thank you for coming to my TED talk. And a special shout out to those angry anonymous white people from my ANC thread who paid my salary last month xxx
