Let’s face it: most of us has posted something stupid at the wrong time at least at some point in our lives. No one could really deny that fact, especially with how some of us started our lives on social media, saying things like, “drinking a coke after a long day! ☺” or something cheerful or unassuming like that.
And obviously, some of us still make that mistake of saying things without reading the room on the internet (unintentionally, most of the time). Most of those people are well-known personalities on social media and influencers who often get flak for the things they say, and sometimes they don’t even acknowledge their mistakes despite the amount of calling out they receive.
And boy, the amount of people (local and international) we could list down here.
But, this isn’t about them—this is about what we can learn from the people who do accept their mistakes.
As everyone already knows, some regions in the Philippines just went through a harrowing experience with Typhoon Paeng. The cold weather obviously prompted the every-typical “cuddle weather” tweets, which are normal for people living in a comfortable situation, compared to the ones experiencing the brunt of the storm.
But, these things, especially if you’re a person of influence, could generate heat from the public.
Mika Salamanca, a prominent influencer and content creator with 3.9 million followers on Twitter alone, drew in a lot of flak after posting a now-deleted post with the caption, “Cuddle weather”. Most of the reactions to her post were negative, with one saying that her post was very inappropriate in light of the ongoing onslaught of the Typhoon Paeng, that “…cuddle weather signal 3 nga Metro Manila”.
Salamanca later on posted an apology on her Facebook page, explaining that she “obviously did not think twice about [her] caption and deleted it immediately after people called [her] out”. She acknowledged her mistake, saying that the post was insensitive of her and did this knowing that she has to be more careful with her actions and words with her considerable following.
She also included different links to some donation drives that are extending their help to those in need at this time. Salamanca also mentioned as a postscript that she hopes people could also “call out” the government as fast as they did to her and “for news sites to focus on picking up and sharing more helpful information during times like these” (ouch? but okay). We think it’s good that people call out influencers for their mistakes and that these people immediately acknowledge their wrongs and strive to correct it immediately.
This is just basic accountability, you know? Not everyone has the stomach to even do that, no matter how much power they have. All of us should take a page from Mika Salamanca’s book and do just that. We all make mistakes, and it’s normal for us to get called out for our wrong actions.
It takes a lot of guts to accept one’s wrongdoings, no matter how simple or minor they may seem. Yes, Mika Salamanca may have gotten the flak of the public for a simple post that had been posted at the wrong time, but she immediately remedied that by posting her sincere apologies and some links to some NGOs that could help in a perilous time such as an onslaught of a typhoon.
Now that’s how to be an influencer—by being an amplifying voice in times where help is hard to come by.
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