Representing VIPs? Remind Them That the Internet is Forever.
/"It goes without saying..." is a phrase we throw around to introduce information that we believe to be obvious — but then we always go on and SAY whatever it was we implied did not need to be said! It is one of many idiomatic phrases that exist on the fringe of contradiction. Oh, English.
However, there is such a thing as information that really doesn't need to be shared publicly, simply because it's nobody's damned business but your own. As PR advisors, we are here to make sure our clients do not go overboard. At a certain point, failure to curb this behavior is, essentially, complicity.
Mike Agnes, Editor-In-Chief of Webster's New World Dictionary, announces 2008 Word of the Year: overshare.
The oversharing epidemic
Showing and telling every single, solitary detail of your personal, private business, especially on social networks, is the norm for many people. Stream-of-consciousness oversharing online, on TV and elsewhere, has risen to almost professional athletic competition levels of zeal and volume. Ew.
And unfortunately for PR pros, the public personalities we represent are some of the worst offenders.
I don't follow many celebrities on social media but it often feels like I do. My friends @mention and tag me in posts by celebrities, they repost things celebrities say on my timelines (with cheeky suggestions that my crisis counsel should be offered), and they perpetuate the celebrity meme and caption industrial complex. Consequently, I have run out of numbers to tally the things I wish I could un-see and delete from my brain mcnuggets.
Lessons from a childhood in NYC
Growing up in Queens (one of New York City's five boroughs), we had a playground saying: "that's ya bizniss." It was usually offered when somebody told you something extraneous, or that you didn't care about.
Child 1: "The ice cream man! Come on!"
Child 2: "My mother said to wait by the swings until I see her in the parking lot because we have to go to Pathmark and —"
Child 1: "That's ya bizniss. I'm about to go get this red icee! You comin' or not?
For "regular folks," social sharing is annoying but not really a major issue because the opinion of others may not impact their reputation or career (or they may be happy to have others know the details of their private lives). I suppose social oversharing is actually fine for VIPs with a private account too — they are just talking to their inner circle, people who they have approved to share the confidential details of their lives.
However, for celebs with public accounts, this is just a bad idea. Hints about pending divorces. Graphic descriptions of medical conditions. Tips (or flat-out specifics) about geographic locations that make it easy for tabloid photographers to get money shots. Private details about other celebrities. Ugly clap-backs. Personal or embarrassing information about family members. Stahhhhp! Why? Because #thatsyabizniss.
I have heard famous people state that they just "live out loud," or that they don't want to hide anything from their fans. That they are happy to share their "true" selves with the public. Feh.
Even the most uninhibited celebrity makes a conscious choice about what is or is not shared in interviews or online.
I will leave it at this: it's not about sharing tax evasion pointers or confessing to crimes (although if your client has done those things, messy social media breadcrumbs may lead the authorities right to their door). It's about knowing better than to divulge personal information that quite simply should be kept off the grid.
It's common sense, but common sense isn't so common.
Inspiration and Resources
Inside PR is a podcast about public relations and social media that I enjoy listening to from time to time.
In early 2015, the show took a look at the fallout from an offensive tweet by corporate communications executive Justine Sacco and the personal and professional backlash that resulted from her post. You can check out the podcast on the Inside PR website or on iTunes. While Sacco's post would not count as oversharing, the incident was a tremendous lesson about the subjectivity of satire and the certainty of the social media mob.
