So, you fail to take a deep breath and to count to 10—and you post something you probably shouldn’t on Twitter or Facebook, or somewhere else online.
You hope it blows over without doing too much damage. But what if you’re famous and have thousands, if not millions of virtual followers?
NFL star Larry Johnson was released by the Kansas City Chiefs after questioning his coach and posting gay slurs for all the world to see. California Gov. Arnold Shwarzenegger was criticized for pulling out a big knife in a video that was posted as a “thank you” to constituents for suggesting ways to cut the state budget.
Those are but two of the recent controversies that social networking helped ignite—and far from the last in an era when fans and gawkers are just waiting for sports stars, celebrities and politicians to say something embarrassing or naughty. New technology makes it that much easier for stars to do that.
“Yes, I get that this is a great promotional tool. It can also be a dagger if not used properly” says Matthew Pace, a New York attorney who works with agencies that manage athletes and who cautions them about the damage social networking can do to a career.
Syracuse University star receiver Mike Williams discovered those pitfalls when he was suspended from the football team this fall, and then quit shortly after saying he hated college on his Facebook page.
“I can’t see me doing this for long.., hint, hint,” Williams also wrote, according to the Syracuse student newspaper.
Those kinds of posts are causing more universities, pro teams and even some movie studios to try to clamp down on the off-the-cuff content their stars put online. Or, at the very least, celebrities of all kinds are being encouraged to think before they post.
Sometimes, it’s about protecting reputations. In other cases, it’s about keeping sensitive information from leaking.
One could argue that some celebrities, athletes and politicians have done a pretty good job of making fools of themselves for a long time without social networking.
“But there may be a tendency even for really high-profile people to forget that any content you post online is a public statement and that it is as public as any television or print interview,” says Nancy Flynn, a corporate consultant who heads the Ohio-based e Policy Institute. “It’s in your words, so you can’t say, ‘Well, I was misquoted.
But while there are obvious dangers, all of this “microblogging,” as it’s known, can be worth the risk: Fans like having this kind of direct access to public figures and can be quite loyal to those who are good at it.
And even if there’s an online stumble, here or there, well, that can just make celebrities seem more real.
“It’s a way to understand that they are human,” says April Francis, a 26-year-old Chicagoan who works as an “identity consultant,” which includes help with wardrobe, branding and public relations for her clients.
On Twitter, she follows everyone from burlesque performer Dita Von Teese to basketball star Shaquille O’Neal—but recently dropped author Margaret Atwood because she thought Atwood was “mind-blowingingly boring.”
For a lot of fans, it is that not controversy that the kiss of death these days.