How to Respond to an Attack via Social Media

Happy Friday, friends!

A huge thanks to everyone who reached out about writing for this blog. If even a quarter of the people who expressed interest end up writing articles, you all will be in for a real treat. And will finally be able to read a post from some people who actually know what they're talking about. Stay tuned on Monday for the first guest post!

In the meantime, I wanted to share a quick analysis of Bowdoin College's pretty epic response to a really, really tough criticism in Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History podcast. I won't get into the reasons why, but he actually said this: "If you're looking at liberal arts colleges, don't go to Bowdoin. Don't let your kids go to Bowdoin. Don't let your friends go to Bowdoin. Don't give money to Bowdoin." Ouch.

One of the trickiest decisions higher ed social media managers have to make is determining when it's worth responding to something. Cranky student complaining about something? Probably, but it depends. Cranky alumni opining about "safe spaces"? Probably not. Cranky pop science writer/walking Ted Talk? To quote Omar Little, oh indeed.

The podcast came out Thursday morning, and within just a few hours Bowdoin shared this blistering response via its social media. It was well-researched, countered Gladwell's arguments point-by-point, and even shared an email from Gladwell's producer that shows him misrepresenting the story's intent. It was fiery and pugnacious, and Bowdoin's followers responded very positively. It was shared widely on Facebook, and perhaps most encouraging, several Bowdoin supporters took to Twitter (independently, I assume) to share the response with people who were talking about the show and criticizing Bowdoin.

Whether or not you agree with Gladwell's critique - personally, like with much of his writing, I think his overall point is interesting and worth conversation but he relies on anecdote/parable to the point of absurdity - I think this was an extremely smart response from Bowdoin.

Putting on my PR hat, this is one of those instances where silence would have made things much worse. You can just hear the questions now that would have arisen in a vacuum: Was Malcolm Gladwell right? Do you serve lavish food at the expense of scholarships for poor students? Are you ruining higher education? Bowdoin turned all those questions on their head with their fact-based response.

And I really admire that they came out swinging against such a well-known figure. That takes guts, but it resonated much more strongly than any sort of mealy-mouthed PR pablum could have. (And trust me, I've written more than my share of mealy-mouthed PR pablum.) This response definitely puts Gladwell and his team on the defensive, and I wouldn't be surprised to see them come out with some sort of response - even if it's just a "sorry-not-sorry" for not giving Bowdoin's administration a chance to respond. (If this happens privately in an email or phone call to Bowdoin's president, they could double-down and post something like "Malcolm Gladwell just called... to say... I'm sorry." But that would be *really* gutsy.)

At the end of the day, Bowdoin's supporters will admire the fact that the college came out swinging, and listeners with no connection to the school just might end up having their minds changes if they take to social media or Google to do some extra research about the show.

Too often institutions are risk-averse in these types of situations, but I for one applaud Bowdoin's swift, fierce response. And for #hesm folks, it's always important to remember that in situations like this our community is our best advocate. If you provide them with something like Bowdoin's response, they will take it and run with it - sharing it on social media with their friends and even sending it to random people on Twitter. That can be incredibly powerful, especially when you feel - as I'm sure Bowdoin did in this case - that you were genuinely unfairly criticized.