In strict evasion of any comment about abortion, liberals, conservatives and vaginal probes, I'd like to talk about Senator Rapert's moves as they pertain to social media and public relations.
I'm paying attention as a social media editor to how this plays out online. There's a formula with steps - blog to news, news back to blog, news updates original story, tweets all the while, national attention, and eventually an auto-tuned viral video and a spot on John Stewart.
I've read other people more intelligently discuss this, but here's my go.
Someone in the office said, "Is Jason Rapert the Applebees of local politicians?"
Question was posed after I saw the Senator's Facebook page is now gone.
There's a comparison because Applebees had a similar onslaught of critical comments in an 'overnight social media meltdown.'
Someone at Applebees corporate who stays up very late, and I don't know, has a glass of wine or two, got too emotional on the company's Facebook page amid a PR storm. People got blocked, posts got personal.
See Twitter #ChelseaWelch.
The waitress, Chelsea, posted a receipt from an Applebees customer on Reddit. The content was good, so it became viral.
The receipt is signed by a pastor, who asks an Applebees server why she owes her 18 percent when she's required to give God only 10.
The backlash when the restaurant fired the girl was a tidal wave of bad PR.
To make matters worse, the restaurant blamed privacy policy that the guest's name should not have been shared.
As you all are, the rest of the Internet is a surprisingly good investigator for lack of formal training, and it was countered that Applebees had not too far in the distant past posted a customer's name in a good for business context.
That share had mysteriously been deleted, but someone, somewhere, had the good discernment to store it and bring it up again.
It rolled like a Katamari ball down the hill from there.
Senator Rapert's page is gone, but I had taken more than one look at it. Just as the Applebees crowd had, the Internet went to the Senator's Facebook to tell him where they believe he went wrong.
Because we're mean people, the Internet was mean to the Senator.
I saw the comments growing as quickly as on any public official or corporation, or journalist's worst day.
I didn't see the ones that apparently talked about his children.
I did see one from an Arkansan of Middle Eastern descent. It was a well-written letter that didn't attack, but asked a lot of questions. According to him, he was blocked after that.
A lot of people were by their own accounts, so they moved to a new location. The new Facebook page with 128 likes demands the Senator's resignation.
I don't know what time the Senator's page was taken down or why.
Even so, the conversation continues.
Comments (16)
Add commentUpdate - Page is back up
Update - Page is back up after some cleaning, and under siege again.
"Conversation"
"...the conversation continues."
And that's the thing, it's a conversation like a tsunami is a water park game. It's not.
One of the great joys of these modern times is we're able, all able, to journalist. The barriers of the past are gone.
The bad news is: Everybody's a journalist. The barriers of the past are gone.
And what's shaken from that is not being able to demonstrate the thing that happened, but demonstrate the reaction to the thing that happened. Hence some brands does some thing, and it's our reaction to the thing which becomes the journalistic core.
We're not talking with each other as much as at each other.
"Pie."
"HE IS OVERWHELMED WITH HIS LOVE OF PIE ABOVE ALL OTHER THINGS."
Because we also have this thing of it becoming a battle of extremes, so it's either all pie or no pie. Called "the movement to absolutes," it's the reason we will all be one day killed in an accidental nuclear explosion. We can't converse anymore, we can only state, then work to out-shout anyone who counters us.
Internets LOL
privacy policy
As much as I feel for the waitress, the minute she endangered the patron by posting personal info, she had to go, it's called being a liability.
Like the "do not try this at home" warning...
Do not try this at your job.
True
It was a very rude thing for the 'pastor' to do but the server's hands are kind of tied. Despite the rude note, she still received an 18% tip by default since it was a party larger than 8. It's not like she was stiffed and left with a zero percent tip. Still, it's no excuse for the treatment.
I found the logic (or lack thereof) behind the note incredibly ridiculous. Saying that "he gives God 10% so why should she get 18%" was very much an apples-to-oranges comparison. What he was giving to God (unless he was lying) was 10% of his total income. What her 18% was being applied to was the cost of one meal.
One percentage may have been higher but if the amount it was applied to was smaller then it certainly wouldn't have been more money. Perhaps that pastor needs to audit an elementary school math class.
"Perhaps that pastor needs to
"Perhaps that pastor needs to audit an elementary school math class."
Or just have the common sense to know large groups get auto-grat.
Hey iwonder and
Hey iwonder and ucantbeserious, why don't you save work time and make your useless commentary one long dribble instead of three shorts.
well
We (I) like to mix it up.
Where's BatmanAndRobin? When are you going to let him speak?
ARBEAR is right
It's time to let our powers combine. We should create a joint username entitled "i_cantwonder_bserious". The avatar shall be Ralph Wiggum wearing a clownhat. We'll have to add this to our LCD bucket list.
YES!! but this should be our avatar
Yeah but
Applebee's posted customer sig's many times when the note on the receipt was complimentary (all examples of which have been taken down now, but a quick web search will show them).
I mean, if you want to turn this into an Applebee's right/wrong thing (which I think is to miss the point of the blog post) then put this kid down for wrong: The entire Applebee's response, top to bottom, was a encapsulation of corporate hammer-head culture and everything that's wrong with being a cubical slave in today's "commerce yippee!" service industry world.
Everything.
'Cause let me tell ya', some waitress went home no longer having her slog job, but some expensive haircut knows he's getting a nice bonus at the end of the quarter. The difference between the two isn't brains -- 'cause you can't tell me Applebee's made the smart move -- it's luck, the flip of a coin. Any of us are one phone call from trying to make a living off the church crowd leaving Jack Chick tracks; any of us are one warm-smile-on-the-elevator away from a corner office and a personal secretary. It has nothing to do with business acumen, not at the designer cheeseburger level.
And haircut's getting his bonus taxed at the capital gain's rate, 'cause he's a job creator.
Job Creator, just like the hammerheads who mounted this PR response and have lost Applebee's God-only-knows how much business in years to come.
But at least the corporate jet has good whiskey, and Matilda can go to the emergency room when her kid gets an infection, so whatever.
Corporate drone culture, job creators: This is why we're all going to die in an accidental nuclear explosion -- a few of us with nice haircuts.