Hottake: 4 Important Lessons From the Coldplay Accidental “Outing” (aka How NOT To Go Viral)
Image credit: Hollywood Unlocked
Earlier this week (ironically), I posted about how leaders are often obsessed with “making it go viral,” and my point was that it’s very hard for anyone – especially a company – to make something go viral. People decide what goes viral, and they do so more quickly and efficiently than any company ever could.
And lo, the Internet gods shone upon me with a classic example of how something goes viral because the people make it so – not the company. Trust me, in this case, the company really, dearly wishes this had stayed nice and quiet.
Enter a seemingly innocent incident at a recent Coldplay concert in Boston. If you’ve been living under a rock for the last 24 hours, here’s the rundown:
Andy Byron, CEO of a company called Astronomer, was caught canoodling with a woman named Kristin Cabot who turned out to be his chief people officer. When the kiss cam panned to the seemingly happy couple, instead of kissing, he ducked out of the frame and she covered her face.
Turns out, Byron is married with kids, and Cabot is recently divorced. The clip, posted to TikTok yesterday has already amassed 50 million views and counting.
The couple is clearly in damage control mode, both publicly and I’m assuming in their personal lives. They were inundated with negative comments on social media and have both deleted their profiles.
Other than just rubbernecking like it’s a 20-car pileup, let us pause to evaluate what companies and leaders can and should learn from this incident.
Lesson 1: Cybersleuthing is real. I often joke with my husband that if he ever goes missing, my first stop is going to be his group of intensely tech-savvy friends, who are some of the best cybersleuths out there. These guys can identify just about anyone. They search and search until they find the breadcrumb that leads them to the answer. They are amazingly good at making connections between different data points. They understand how technology works and look at techy things like IP addresses to make connections.
Just scanning the massive amount of news coverage on this thing, I can see that journalists and cybersleuths alike have been crawling archived versions of the now-deleted social media profiles, company website, company socials and any other source they can find. And guess what? They are sharing all those findings online with others, which just perpetuates the news cycle with each new fact that is revealed. They’ve found photos of the two individuals together at company functions, and they’ve learned private details about their lives. It’s only been a day, folks. Let’s give them another day and see what they come up with.
The bottom line here is that if the image or video is out there, people online are going to figure out who you are, what you are doing and who you are doing it with. Especially if you are an executive or notable leader, you must assume that nothing is private. You must assume if you are in public anywhere that you could be recorded or photographed. You have no expectation of privacy, and you must act that way. It’s part of the job.
Lesson 2: They’re always watching. You know those handy gizmos called cell phones that everyone carries all day long? They have cameras! You must remember that people always have a camera and a video recorder in their pocket. People like me can produce said gizmo and open the camera app in about 0.2 seconds. Again, if you shouldn’t be doing it, for heaven’s sake, don’t do it in public. Especially in a very public setting like a concert in a huge arena, where people are even more likely to have their phones out, in hand, camera on, ready to record.
Even when you are in private, or theoretically have an expectation of privacy, those dang cell phones can get you. Remember the video of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack? That was taken in a setting that could reasonably be called private. But the video was still recorded and then leaked to the media. You are not safe. They are watching.
Lesson 3: Stay in your lane. This one is for companies as well as individuals.
It was somewhat shocking to me and some of my best social media buddies that we saw major brands jumping into the conversation yesterday and honestly being very unkind. Brands need to be wary of jumping in on a viral moment just for the sake of doing so. If it doesn’t match your brand voice, or it’s not something your brand would do on any other channel, why do it on social? It seems off, in terms of branding, and it very well may backfire on you. You don’t want to create a PR crisis of your own because you said something cheeky on social media about another company’s crisis.
As I wrote a while ago, we can’t all be Wendy’s. If your brand voice is snarky and irreverent, then maybe it fits. But if you are a corporation who issues “normal” press releases and statements to the media, why would you suddenly make fun of someone else’s very public pain? It doesn’t make sense and honestly it is just spiteful.
If you’re an individual, the same advice applies. Remember Lesson 1? The cybersleuths can identify YOU as well. Don’t troll just to troll. It’s better to just let it be. As I often tell my clients, if you have even a moment of pause, or you find yourself asking, “Should I really post this?,” the answer is definitely NO. Having run corporate social media for a large company, I can tell you from first-hand experience that people absolutely do report things that folks post on their personal social media to the company that employs them. It’s a legal gray area, but it does happen. So just be aware that things you post online, even if they’re totally personal, can make their way back to your employer or other individuals that you might not want to see them. Use discretion. Use good judgement. Don’t be stupid.
Lesson 4: You cannot stop the train once it reaches the top of the mountain. No company – no matter who you are – can stop a viral moment like this once it really gains momentum. If you are not familiar with Google Trends, it’s a super fun free tool, where you can see the volume of searching for a specific topic. When I went to the Google Trends homepage this morning, the very first item that was auto filled in as a suggestion in the search box was “Coldplay kiss cam.” Yikes.
And when I clicked the Explore button, I got this chart.
A note about how to read this chart: These are relative values, not real figures. The top of the chart is 100, representing the peak of activity around the topic, and every other data point is adjusted based on that scale of 100. So, it shows relative search volume over time. I expanded it out to 7 days so that you could see how quickly this rocketed up yesterday. The thing that is most interesting to me is that it is sustaining a very high level of activity into today – meaning people are pretty obsessed with it and continue to search for new information on it. Once the train hits the top of the hill (aka 100), the momentum is too strong and you just have to finish the ride.
Executives in crisis mode often want to know how you can stop the online swirl, and the answer is you can’t. You just have to ride it out. It’s like getting on a roller coaster. Once the ride starts, you’re committed and there’s nothing to do but finish the ride.
Also, refrain from the urge to “respond.” I can’t tell you how many times leaders in crisis situations have insisted we respond. “We must defend ourselves!” The problem with issuing a response is that you then create a whole new cycle of social media activity, news coverage, etc. If you really want it to die, you should refrain from issuing a statement unless you absolutely must. Let it die on its own and do not do anything to fan the flames. No public statements from individuals, no company statements.
So, in summary, it’s going to be a very bad week or month at Astronomer HQ and in the Byron and Cabot households. And while it may be fun to spectate, apply the lessons above, or you might be next.