Out of Scope Issue 34: Money, Followers, or Clout?
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Out of Scope Issue 34: Money, Followers, or Clout?
This week’s nonrequired thinking on reputation, business, and culture
This week, we look at social media’s impact on time, crime, and stock ticker names.
💡ON OUR MINDS:
Weekly Damage Control from Social Platforms
Last week we talked about Facebook’s leaked internal research around the harm it causes teenagers. This week Facebook announced a different communications strategy: stop apologizing and start reminding critics of all the good they’ve done.
If you notice that your newsfeed starts containing more stories about Facebook itself, that’s because it’s intentional. The New York Times reports that Zuckerberg has signed off on an initiative called “Project Amplify,” which will show users pro-Facebook stories straight to the feed. Some companies have a blog, Facebook has its own newsfeed.
But is this approach too aspirational given the long history of negative happenings on the platform? Some think so:
Perhaps Facebook’s executive team is having trouble controlling the narrative because most of their communications have been reactive. Meanwhile, TikTok is taking a more proactive approach to combat its reputation as a harmful “time-suck” for youths. The platform (known as Douyin in China) announced this week that it is setting a forty-minute per day limit for kids in China who are under fourteen years old. Will this move hedge criticism better than Facebook has? Time will tell.
True Crime Takes TikTok
In July, 22-year-old Gabby Petito left for a cross-country road trip with her fiance. She documented the trip, traveling in a Ford white van, on social media. In August, she disappeared, sparking a craze of internet-based sleuthing that took over “CrimeTok” — the area of TikTok where everyday people discuss their theories on true crime. This Tuesday, after much speculation online, authorities officially confirmed that Petito died in a homicide.
The tragic facts of the case also reveal a dichotomy in social media. On the one hand, some civilians did contribute to finding Petito through tips that proved to be accurate. On the other hand, all of the videos across social media about finding Petito — from analyzing her recent Instagram posts to theorizing about what might have happened — almost gamified her disappearance and murder. In fact, some creators gained millions of followers over the course of just a couple of weeks by posting updates about the case. Petito herself went from about one thousand Instagram followers in July to over a million followers today.
Did TikTokers exploit the story for personal gain? Anonymous tips have long been a thing, but it’s also emblematic of a larger trend in popular culture, where real-life cases spark internet crazes among “amateur detectives.” Just look at how true crime podcasts and docu-series like Netflix's “Don’t F*** with Cats,” have exploded.
But this topic cannot be discussed without acknowledging whose stories are getting told. And those stories are mainly pretty young white girls who have a social media presence. Publications spanning from Fox News to Rolling Stone have covered the “White Woman Syndrome,” where the public (and media) invest interest in tragic stories of white women, but largely ignore similar stories about women of color.
Time’s Up on Time’s Up?
No one is immune from the classic comms advice of walking the walk. Time’s Up board members resigned following the news that its CEO and some team members had assisted New York’s former Governor Cuomo in building his defense against sexual harassment allegations.
Was Time’s Up more story than action? Natalie Shure writes in The New Republic that both Time’s Up and Me Too’s “selective focus on the potential for cathartic storytelling to take down individual abusers crowded out the possibility of building workers’ power to fight for structural change.”
What’s next for the organization?
🏆 REPUTATION FAIL OF THE WEEK: Mailchimp Money-Makers
Employees at Mailchimp are upset after the company did what it had internally been telling them it would never do: sell. The $12 billion sale resulted in zero gains for the email marketing company’s employees, who had been denied equity in their compensation packages because of the company’s commitment to remaining privately held.
While co-founder and CEO Ben Chestnut celebrates on Twitter, thanking employees for their hard work, actual employees are pointing out the hypocrisy.
The two co-founders own almost the entire company, meaning they stand to make about $5 billion each on the deal. “Mailchimp has a motto: ‘empower the underdog,’” said a former employee. “But it really sounds like we were empowering Ben and Dan the whole time.”
In the end, will this internal snafu make a difference, or is it ‘what’s done is done’?
📡 ON OUR RADAR
In January, a former cop turned Facebook Inc. investigator posted an all-staff memo on the company’s internal message board. It began “Happy 2021 to everyone!!” and then proceeded to detail a new set of what he called “learnings.” The biggest one: A Mexican drug cartel was using Facebook to recruit, train and pay hitmen. What a lede.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Visual artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg will display over 620K white flags on the National Mall — the largest “public, participatory art exhibition” at the Mall since the AIDS Quilt — to honor the individuals who have died from COVID-19. Firstenberg will continue adding flags every day of the exhibition to reflect the growing numbers. Will this striking visual help incentivize more people to get vaccinated?
The Emmys is yet another brand that promised action to improve diversity and inclusion, but as Lorraine Ali from the LA Times puts it: “the big winners Sunday night were clear: familiarity and caution." The one major exception was Michaela Coel. In a night otherwise filled with predictable acceptance speeches, Michaela Coel — creator, star, writer, and co-director of I May Destroy You and Emmy winner for limited-series writing — dared listeners to “write the tale that scares you.”
Trudeau narrowly won a snap election that he called. Some viewed the call as an “ego-driven” “power grab” for parliament seats. His conservative opponent, Erin O’Toole, closed polling gaps by shifting the storyline around the election to question how well Trudeau has handled the pandemic. Team HL had a good chuckle over this line from Quartz Daily: "His PR team is no doubt prepping responses to the obvious question: Was it worth it?”
Speaking of Canada, are they dangerously close to a reputation shift away from “multicultural harmony” and closer to the far-right?
What’s in a name? When it comes to gaming the stock market, companies are fighting more than ever before to land word-like stock ticker names to court retail traders. Companies with stock tickers that are real words typically find that they have more liquidity and lower spreads, but most importantly they appeal more to less-experienced traders. This tactic by companies is leading to more press for the ones that can successfully pull it off, including Roundhill Investments which currently holds the ticker MEME, and last month filed it for their own ETF “that will screen stocks for social media activity and short interest.”
Everyone knows the power of an online review these days. The Verge reports that brands are trying to boost their reputation by incentivizing positive reviews, and Amazon is going to do something about it. You didn’t think you were getting away from this bullet without a Bo Burnham reference, right?
A few months ago, Kendall Jenner was accused of cultural appropriation and spreading misconceptions about Mexican culture via her tequila brand campaign. Now Jenner is making her efforts to donate back to the community in Jalisco publicly known. Will that make up for the initial offensiveness in the public’s eye, or were her attempts to mix up the standard celebrity liquor brands deal with an *authentic* campaign just too big of a fail? Maybe next time she can just take the Blake Lively route.
By the signs of this study with UCLA and pharmaceutical company Biogen, Apple is continuing to expand into healthcare. The tech giant will need to tighten up their privacy policies if they plan to help diagnose depression and cognitive decline through sensor data.
Apparently, there’s some papal drama. The Pope spoke out and he is not, in fact, dead.
The ability to explain a concept in a childlike manner can be the mark of a skilled communicator – but not always. McKinsey’s latest attempt at demystifying the world of consulting has some Orwellian attributes and hasn’t been received particularly well. McKinsey for kids seeks to educate the next generation of consultants and endear them to the profession. However, the openly corporate (and often sales pitch-like) tone makes this a concerning attempt at educating the public and preserving their reputation.
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should… West Virginia’s governor is throwing a temper tantrum after a school board rejected his bid to coach the boys’ basketball team on top of coaching the girls’ basketball team and serving as governor of the state.
Some updates on what’s considered passive-aggressive in corporate email: https://twitter.com/i/events/1440738025797931017?s=20
Disney has created an official influencer program, Disney Creators Lab, that will “guide and teach” influencers through online courses while they also promote Disney on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. From The Mickey Mouse Club in the ’90s to Disney Channel Original Movie Stars in the ’00s, the company seems to always be on the lookout for new and relevant ways to create Disney stars. With creator programs popping up for all sorts of brands, will this program be Disney’s next build-a-star formula?
We’ll see you here next week! 👋
HL
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