Prince Harry and the Online Storm

Prince Harry  and his infamous online reputation have once again brought shame to the Royal family. While his racist remarks are still under investigation, his personal life has also been splayed across tabloids and social networking sites. Is it possible to employ damage limitation to a personal online reputation as tainted as this?

Prince Harry started his downward spiral by admitting to using marijuana before entering London drug rehabilitation program.  He was also accused of cheating at his high school exit exams and had countless scuffles with the paparazzi. He has also dressed up as a German Nazi soldier to a friend’s costume party, made homophobic remarks and snorted vodka? Both silly and dangerous.

Some say these antics humanise him and the Royal family, others say he should know better due to the privileges of a private education. His response to criticism is to say “I am who I am and I am not going to change.”

His most recent scandal which whipped across the online media networks was the  recording of remarks made in 2006 by the prince, calling two of his colleagues ‘paki’ and ‘raghead’. Both terms were reportedly said without malice, and a public apology was issued that stated Prince Harry never intended to insult his friend.

So what can the Prince do in the form of damage control? Firstly and most importantly take a page out of Mariah Carey’s book “If there is a camera up in here, I don’t want to see this up on Youtube!”   

The prince should take more control over what is said online. The Sun newspaper reported that Harry’s Facebook page had comments such as his favourite book was ‘Winnie the Pooh”. He also wrote messages to his girlfriend that said "Spike is finding it hard to get the dental floss to hold... and isn't sure how it involves the banana!" He should remember that Facebook is a social medium and these sort of inane comments are sure to get public attention.

Other reports illustrate how while Harry may not be involved, social media can create a storm of crazies who can only exacerbate a bad situation. Twitter  had to censor fake accounts such as the “Daily Mail” which ran such as “God Bless Prince Harry! He’s only saying what we are all thinking....” The site was changed to NotDailyMail UK shortly afterwards but it already strengthened the online image of Prince Harry as a racist.

Online reports and social commentaries about his recent public break up with his girlfriend stated that the first the Prince heard of the news was when she changed her relationship status on Facebook to single. Twitter was bombarded with “Prince Harry dumped via Facebook status” tweets.

The experts in online personal branding suggest trying to rank pages on top of the bad results on the SERP - create a personal website, put up a blog, send out press releases, boost positive pages by linking them, and join forums and post.
The laws of personal branding include being authentic, recognised, visible and avoiding discrepancies between what you say and what you do. If you are a famous person you are already visible and the world is watching. Prince Harry as a royal does not want to be famous for being infamous so he should take a few pointers from traditional ORM such as monitoring the buzz and tracking comments made about him.

Influencing a personal brand image has similarities to influencing a corporate image. Both nice and negative mentions are an opportunity for growth using the ten rules of ORM to recover including:
•    listening to the comments,
•    acting immediately and
•    being humble.
In order to get the infamous racist, homophobic, party boy reputation in line he needs to start engaging with the public and be prepared for the worst.