A tale of three apologies on social media
Credit to Author: JOSEPH HOLANDES UBALDE| Date: Sat, 05 Jan 2019 18:25:08 +0000
Barely a week into 2019 and already, three major apologies have sent ripples on social media to varying effects.
The first one is a disaster. The second, a master class on how an apology is done right. The last one is something more dreadful and regretfully, personal.
The first major apology of 2019, came from Cove Manila for their botched attempt at making history for dumping the largest number of balloons on New Year’s Day. To clarify, the apology actually came before the start of this new year. However, it’s effects are still felt to this day.
The problem with the “apology” is that it felt empty, half-hearted, and insincere.
This was the apology as delightfully translated through the wit of commenter, Guammer Partosa:
“Sinabi naman namin sa inyo na environment friendly ung mga balloons pero ang dami niyo paring kinukuda.
Pero naka receive kami ng letter from DENR na sinasabing kanselahin ang event. Nakipagmatigasan kami dahil environment friendly naman nga kasi talaga ‘yung gagawin namin!
Pero dahil makulit kayong lahat, edi kayo na panalo, kanseld na ang mga lobo *(kahit nai produce na namin.)
Ok na?”
Since posting the apology, Cove Manila’s post garnered nearly 5,000 shares (as of this writing) and has gotten about 4,000 comments, mostly from people still fuming about their brazen disregard to the environment. Cove Manila’s online “sorry” felt too evasive, defensive, and a bit condescending.
The first rule in a social media apology: be sincere or at the very least try to convey your sincerity. And that always begins with a full disclosure of one’s mistake. In social media, the effect of one’s action is felt immediately and when you are found wanting, the full pressure of the mob will get you.
Which brings me to the genius behind Irvin’s Salted Egg’s Facebook apology early this week.
First of all, this is a case where the apology became bigger than the actual controversy, which, as it turned out, worked wonders for the brand’s renewed popularity.
Apparently, a customer discovered a dead lizard inside one of Irvin’s Salted Egg Fish Skin. Whether or not this is true is anyone’s guess. What is certain, however, is that the well-crafted apology that came after shifted the attention from what could’ve been a devastating blow to the brand’s food safety record to a master stroke on how to manage a crisis on social media.
“We really want to sincerely apologize to the customer and everyone who is affected by this incident directly or indirectly. We take full responsibility for the goods that we sell and everything in it.”
That was a simple, straightforward apology that acknowledged their mistake. Now, they doubled-down with this ‘personal’ touch: “I have since personally contacted the customer and will continue to do so to make sure that she and her family is alright (sic).”
It’s this kind of this personal touch added with a promise to remedy the problem was a breath of fresh air to the cynical social media mob who are often too quick on their keyboard to deal their version of justice.
“Never tried this before [but] because of this apology, tomorrow, I’ll go buy one packet,” says a commenter, Edmund Chia.
Irvin’s post garnered 15,000 shares, 34,000 reactions, and over 10,000 comments, including one from meme master Lucky Manzano who after cracking a joke about the dead lizard’s family admitted that the apology was something he absolutely “loved.”
Now comes Tony Labrusca, a model, actor, and Instagram-famous guy who was recently exposed shouting at an immigration officer and throwing a “celebrity” outburst upon arriving at the Ninoy Aquino international Airport on January 3.
A now-deleted Facebook post revealed how the 23-year-old American passport holder reportedly threw expletives at the Filipino officer when he was only given a 30-day stay because he came unaccompanied by his mother, a Philippine citizen.
Immediately, the cyber jury went into a frenzy and lashed out at Tony, whose star was just rising.
He has since apologized for letting his emotions get the better of him and promised to do things right this year. He also claimed that he never used his celebrity to get out of the sticky situation.
But his apology is not something that I’d like to focus on. Instead, I’d like to share my own apology regarding the incident.
In the course of writing this column, I didn’t expect that I’ll find myself apologizing for a tweet I did on the incident.
So, last Friday, when the controversy erupted, I encountered a long post by someone who claimed that aside from Tony stressing out that he was a celebrity (and being rebutted back with the immigration officer’s: “I-don’t-even-know-you” remark), the young actor was also accompanied by his “boyfriend.”
I found the post dubious and the claim about his sexuality irrelevant to the issue on hand. So I posted a screenshot of it on Twiiter and added the hashtags: #HehasABF, #ImAcelebritty, and #IdontKnowYou, just to show the three main points of the post.
Later in the evening, I was surprised when my little tweet generated nearly 4,000 likes on Twitter and got retweeted several hundred times. The comments were vicious. A few accused me of outing Tony and I was instigating homophobia. But what really irritated me were the comments directed at Tony and how people joked about his rumored sexuality.
Upon reading the comments, I could have easily deleted the tweet and simply moved on, but I felt it was right to explain myself, apologize, delete the post, and ask people to calm the eff down.
I won’t post the apology in full here (It’s still there on my Twitter account: @seph_ubalde) but I’d like to tell you how it felt like after. At first, I was angry at how people would misconstrue my intentions and how out of control the online mob is. I found out that people online are very angry and could easily show this emotion when given the slightest provocation. They abandon reason, common sense, logic, and decency. Then I also felt that I had to own up to my mistake not only because it was right, but also because it was the mob rule.
In social media, you must make your intent clear all the time. There is no room for vagueness. So despite my best intentions, I did say sorry and you know what? It felt so good. What a way to start my 2019 right?
Joseph Ubalde is a digital content expert and social media strategist who has worked for various local and global companies. ‘ The Digital Nomad’ is the first and only column dedicated to social media in the Philippines. If you have comments or want to connect with him, E-mail: markjubalde@gmail.com.
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