Now Share This: PR and Social Media

I’ll go ahead and say it now – Tiger Woods is going down on this one. And the reason is simple – he’s underestimating the competition.

He’s used to muscling his way around a golf course, pulling out the thick sticks and literally crushing his enemies with his power game. Tiger, however, has never faced a foe like this. The celebrity media (fine, paparazzi) feasts on PR blunders like the one made (and continuing to be made) by Woods and his camp over the long weekend.

Seasoned PR pro Kevin Sullivan said it best in a Yahoo! Sports blog posting:

“Tell it first, tell it yourself and tell it all.” That is the rule of thumb when it comes to PR in a crisis situation like this one. And believe me, when you’re Tiger Woods, and facing the type of innuendo and speculation that he’s facing right now, this qualifies as a full blown crisis. Even if his sponsors are standing by him, what happens if a sordid tale emerges? And, worse, what if Tiger isn’t the one who breaks the news, but rather has to fess up – a la Alex Rodriguez and countless others on the MLB Steroids issue – after getting busted by the media/blogosphere/etc.?

Tiger is literally putting his entire personal brand, reputation, golf legacy and much more on the line – and needlessly if this truly is just an embarrassing accident that was no big deal.

Because if that was the case, why wouldn’t Woods just say so? If it involved some type of medical issue/family emergency that constituted him leaving his house at 2:25 a.m., why not say that and put the whole thing to rest? Why not talk to the cops, issue a detailed public statement saying it involved matter X and beyond that it’s over and done with? Instead, he put out a wishy-washy, non-statement statement and blew off the cops three times in three days. (Side question: Would you or I be treated so delicately if a state trooper came to our house and our spouse said, “You know what, he’s taking a nap. Come back tomorrow”?)

Of course where there’s smoke there’s often fire on these types of stories, and the celebrity media smells the chum in the water with Woods. Something is fishy here. And believe me when I tell you the real story will come out, and the chance for Tiger Woods to control the way it is told and (most important) the public reaction is waning by the second. This is too juicy a story and Tiger Woods is too big a name for this to evaporate. Tiger can control the golf and sports media, but the celebrity paparazzi and bloggers/gossip columnists will keep digging and dumpster diving until they find out the real story behind the late-night crash outside his mansion.

From a PR point of view, this is a fascinating case study to me in how NOT to handle PR and crisis communications in 2009. I really think guys like Tiger and A-Rod either get terrible advice from PR people who serve more as Yes Men than PR pros, or else they just refuse to listen to anybody, act human and panic.

Either way, it’s fascinating to watch this saga unfold. What do you think?