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Marketing, Online Marketing

What Steve Harvey & Miss Universe Can Teach Us About Digital Marketing

By Juan V López @JuanVLopez · On December 23, 2015

You’ve heard about it by now.

The memes, the vines, the tweets, the jokes…

Funniest #MissUniverse meme so far. I feel for #SteveHarvey could have happened to anyone pic.twitter.com/HlpoFsrNrP

— Linsey Davis (@LinseyDavis) December 21, 2015

One of the best #SteveHarvey memes of the day pic.twitter.com/ZOwtUiXin8

— Drew Casey (@Drew__Casey) December 22, 2015

Fave meme from the miss universe fiasco: "@RonyVargasV: MEME. #MissUniverse2015 #SteveHarvey 😂. @MiDiarioPanama pic.twitter.com/HHaWTTzCvX"

— Alona Varshal (@alonavarshal) December 23, 2015

Next year's host @MissUniverse! #MissUniverse2015 @Oprah #yessgawd! 👑👑 @IAmSteveHarvey #SteveHarvey pic.twitter.com/2IHget5CUw

— DragcentricDeb (@DragcentricDeb) December 22, 2015

#MissUniverse2015 #SteveHarvey #MissPhilippines #MissColombia pic.twitter.com/UTPY8XG4Ol

— DragcentricDeb (@DragcentricDeb) December 22, 2015

Poor Steve Harvey made one of the biggest mistakes of his life Sunday at the Miss Universe 2015 pageant when he announced Miss Colombia (Ariadna Gutierrez) as the pageant winner…only to pop back on stage 3 minutes later an announce Miss Philippines (Pia Alonzo) as the true winner.

We can go on and on about what he should’ve done, but there are a few things us digital marketers can learn from Steve’s massive gaffe…

OWN YOUR MISTAKE

Steve had just about the perfect response after screwing up. He jumped back on stage, proclaimed his mistake and corrected the situation by announcing Miss Philippines as the real winner.

“Let me just take control of this,” Harvey said. “This is exactly what’s on the card. I take responsibility for this. It was my mistake. It was on the card. Horrible mistake. I can show it to you right here. The first runner-up is Colombia. It was my mistake. Please don’t hold it against the ladies.”

How does this apply to digital marketing?

If you’re like me, you move fast – real fast.

As much as I strive for perfection, I’ve sent out tons of emails, tweets, posts and images with minor misspellings or errors. Yes, this pales in comparison to what happened at the Miss Universe pageant, but the principle is the same – when you make a mistake, own up to it immediately, accept responsibility and move forward.

Us digital marketers pride ourselves on our work so a lot of times we try to undo our mistakes by blaming deadlines or deleting posts, but human error exists. Own it and more forward.

TWEETS ARE FOREVER

After the huge mistake, Steve decided to take more ownership of the issue – he took it to Twitter and apologized to Miss Colombia & Miss Philippines…except he misspelled the names of both countries.

Ah, Steve.

Screen Shot 2015-12-23 at 6.46.11 PM

He quickly deleted this Tweet and even though it was likely the cause of some auto-correct or simple pressured tweeting, the damage was done.

And on the internet, you can’t undo damage – tweets are FOREVER.

How does this apply to digital marketing?

One of the first lessons about Twitter I learned back in like 2007 was, “If you’re not OK with your mom tweeting it, then don’t tweet.”

This has not only made me ultra conscious of the content I tweet, but it’s made me super careful to spell everything correctly and quintuple check everything I post – no matter what kind of rush I’m under.

Digital marketers, a lot of times we rush to publish content and sometimes it’s bad – real bad. Misspellings everywhere, some sentences don’t make sense, the content is lacking…in a 24/7 world, it’s natural to want to publish things as quick as possible.

But take your time. A simple spelling error can cost you even more than the 1 minute you saved in publishing without revising.

DESIGN THINKING RULES

This is a picture of the card Steve Harvey received to go out and announce the Miss Universe winner.

Screen Shot 2015-12-23 at 6.45.48 PM

I’m sorry, but is this the best a multi-million dollar organization can do? Beautiful women strolling across a stage and working their butts off, only to have the winners card be typed up in Microsoft Word?

Wow.

How does this apply to digital marketing?

Design rules – this point was proven on Sunday.

People can make the case that Steve should have taken his time to read the card more thoroughly and that it was clear enough as is, but I guarantee you that if the design of this card was geared to make it more user-centric, Steve would not have made this mistake.

Designer Eric Thomas redesigned this beautiful sample card – something Miss Universe should really consider doing in the future.

Screen Shot 2015-12-23 at 7.12.44 PM

ALWAYS BE PREPARED TO GO VIRAL

Alright, so Steve Harvey made the biggest mistake in the world since Captain Edward Smith crashed the Titanic into an iceberg…so, what’s next?

The person who really made off as a winner in this whole situations was Miss Colombia, Ariadna Gutierrez.

Yes, something can be said about her not willingly taking the crown off when Steve announced Miss Philippines as the real winner, but that’s subjective.

What’s not subjective is how Gutierrez has handled this whole situation with humility, compassion and understanding.

She’s since posted an Instagram pic saying this was her destiny and she was embraced by the rest of the pageant losers after walking away from the main stage – she’s the world’s sweetheart for the time being.

Forbes is reporting that she’s “been offered entrance in a Las Vegas pageant free of charge and is slated to appear on an upcoming episode of Steve Harvey’s show”

The public feels terrible for her and she’s playing right along into it. She’s handling it with grace, humility and humor…and in return, is getting loads of attention. I don’t doubt her schedule will be full in 2016 with appearances, interviews and features – probably more so than Miss Philippines.

How does this apply to digital marketing?

You need to always be prepared to go viral.

There have been many studies done on the things that go viral, but there’s no formula. It can be as simple as a dumb tweet or a response to a Donald Trump speech or a video you shot on your phone – the point is, you don’t know.

BUT, if by chance that moment does come and your content is shared, re-tweeted, re-posted and re-grammed, you need to be totally ready to make the most of that opportunity.

Gutierrez has played this perfectly because now she’s in perfect position to make 2016 the best year of her life, even though it came as the result of one of the most embarrassing moments of her life.

You – you, digital marketer, you – need to be prepared to have your content go viral at any moment. How can you capitalize on that attention? How can you turn those views into bigger awareness for your brand? You can that viral moment extend into the rest of your work?

Be ready for that moment..

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Juan V López

Juan is a digital marketing & motivational specialist – with a unique perspective in both of these areas. As an avid marketer who's worked with some of the top wealth builders in the world and driven empowerment speaker who thrives on changing lives, Juan's sole purpose in life is to help others identify theirs.

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My wife & I acquired this donut shop in January 2019 and moved to Denver.

Man - these past 1.5 years have been a RIDE.

I didn’t know if we’d survive a few weeks in ... sales were dismal, cash on hand was low, bills were due and wages were coming soon for my 12 employees.

I was alone at the time (my wife hadn’t yet moved here from Reno). I remember going to church on Sunday and crying to God - “I need your help, Lord.”

My dad loaned me $5K and a $10K business loan came in just in time - I made payroll.

➡️ Entrepreneurs know what I’m talking about - those startup struggles 😩

Fast forward to now and we turned this thing ALL THE WAY around. People love our donuts, we sell a ton of sandwiches, the vibes are on point and our customer service is top notch.

Profits from this store have allowed me to purchase 1 investment real estate property and hopefully closing on a 2nd soon. I’ll be able to financially support my dad so he can retire this year.

Things turned ALL THE WAY around. Won’t He?! 🙏🏽

And now, we’re closing the doors.

Why?

Our vision when we moved to Denver was to learn the lay of the land, get accustomed to the people, analyze the market ... 

And eventually have our OWN business - not a franchise.

That day is now 1 week away 🥳

Next Monday July 27 we will officially open @wakeandbakedenver ‼️ (y’all go like the page if you’ve read this far ❤️)

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Kiki is a fucking G. She left her family, friends & everything she knew in Reno to build this dream in Denver & grow this business with me. When there’s an emergency at the shop or with our families, her first response is “what can I do?” When I’m stressed, her answer is always “how can I help you?” She takes out trash, too. She scrubs, too. She leads our team, too. She runs up the money, too. She loses sleep, too. She does whatever it takes for us to succeed and grow in our professional lives & in our love.

I’m so grateful for this girl. A lot of couples go into business together and end up splitting up because the more time they spend with each other, the more they fight. They call it quits.

My lady & I argue too. We fight too. We’re going through the FIRE. But man, I can’t wait to see her every day after we get home from our store. It’s crazy - even though we’re in close proximity most of the time, I just miss being with her. She’s my favorite person in the world. Our love is growing stronger.

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It ain’t 50/50. It’s whoever needs to support the other more that day. We got it like that. We built love brick by brick.

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It’s fucking hard. It ain’t pretty.

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.
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Sorry I’ve been MIA for a while ... Kiki and I acquired a donut shop in Denver and moved here in January! 🍩

@kiki_chhay and I set 3 main goals in 2018: Flip our home, get married & get our own donut shop. Glory to God, we hit all 3.

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Locked in heading into #2019 🔒🔒 -
Drop a 💯 if you feel me #2019goals
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Who Is Juan?

Juan envisions a world where people are moved by their purpose to commit great acts daily, while maximizing their potential and developing their character.

He is an digital marketer, empowerment speaker and MBA. He is a son of 2 Mexican immigrants and a first-generation college student.

Juan spoke at TEDx University of Nevada in January 2015 and has spoken at more than 50 schools, events and organizations since then, ranging from elementary classrooms to business owners.

He is driven to change lives through perspective, power and perseverance.

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