eric rochow : social media handyman

In Brooklyn, I’m in Prospect Park most mornings around 6:30 running our Labs during off-leash hours.

This week, in addition to the usual crowd of dogs and people in the Long Meadow was a photo shoot for a music group.

A Golden Retriever puppy wandered over to the photo shoot, and as the owner walked over to get the pup, he said he saw one of the band members grab the puppy by the collar and kick it.

Some words were exhcanged, and I thought it best to walk over and back up my friend. I pulled out my phone and took a few pictures of the band.

My friend was quite upset about what they did to his pup, and wanted to find out who the band was,  so  he asked that I post it on  Brooklynian .

I say this a lot, but again,  you don’t own it once you hit the Submit button.

Brooklynian is a local hub for several neighborhood online bulletin boards. The Daily Slope ( the Park Slope bulletin board on Brooklynian ) is where I posted a note about what the band did to the dog, asking if anyone could help identify the band.

There were about 3,000 views of the post in 3 hours, and 50 replies to the post. Almost all of the posts were snarky attacks on the band members, and 2 suggestions for how one could identify the offending band.

The Brooklynian and its neighborhood boards is a helpful site, but the boards seem to be more a place for people to try to out-do each other in sarcasm and bitterness. A popular target for Daily Slope participants are people with baby strollers.

A popular blogger, F***** in Park Slope, with 1900 followers, linked to the Daily Slope post on Twitter:

So the floodgates opened. A few hours, a few thousand more views, more snarky replies.

Curbed and Gothamist both pick up the story:

More views of the Daily Slope post, and many replies. The band has become the latest punching bag for the regular commentators.

“I seriously want to find out what band this is. I would like to show up at one of their shows and kick them. Guy sitting on the ground is dangerously close to mullet territory.”

“Oh my God, what is with the guy in the vest and offensively tight jeans? Is this a Strawberry Fields Forever revival? In response to what these shitheads did to that poor little dog, I would have grabbed these ugly bitches by their collars and kicked them in the f******* head.”

“More evidence that Brooklyn is going downhill if you can’t even walk your Golden Retriever puppy (possibly the cutest sort of puppy ever) in Prospect Park without having to look out for assholes on the prowl.”

A regular poster commented visually:

Douche Bag Nation : Born Entitled

After a few hours I added a note that we wanted to ID the band here, not devolve this post into name calling. But that had no effect.

Then the Village Voice calls and emails me, asking to contact the dog owner. I decline his request, knowing my friend does not want to be the lead story on the local news. The Voice does write a post on their site.

The band is identifed as Surefire, and soon they issue a denial, calling me a “lackey” and my friend “a bitter man” and accusing us of slander and using “shock and awe” techniques.

It is awesome and shocking the power one has by hitting the Submit button, especially if you write about puppies. [ note to all bloggers wanting to increase viewership... ]

I added to the original post on the Daily Slope the Surefire’s denial, but that I still believe my friend.

I posted a reply to the Village Voice Surefire response, and got nailed by a few commenters there, so its not just the DailySlope that is a home for anonymous snarkiness.

When I post online I use my real name.  I think its important and I believe it adds crediblity to the what your are saying. Something posted under an assumed name doesn’t have the same heft.

The band handled this badly from the start. A simple “Hey sorry for any misunderstanding here, we’ll move to a different part of the park” instead of a heated conversation in the meadow would have made for a better outcome. After the fact, it be a good thing for the band to reach out the original poster, but that hasn’t happened. Instead the band has gone the verbose name calling route – never a smart move.

I did not think this one post would spiral into the name calling it did. It was certainly an effective way of using social networking to find out the band’s name. [ To date the original post had 16,000 views and 239 replies. ]

But one has to keep in mind, when you post something like this, you can’t control what will happen afterward. A lesson for people, bands, and corporations.