Sarah Palin gave her vaunted speech during the Republican Convention in front of 30 million plus television viewers.  Conventional wisdom, and ain’t that an interesting turn of the phrase, is that she killed.  So, does it matter what she does hereafter, especially if it doesn’t unfold in front of such a large audience?

It’s almost impossible to garner a gargantuan audience.  But when you do, you must kill.  And note that whatever you do thereafter will be overshadowed by your effort in front of the masses.  It’s kind of like baseball.  Heroics during the regular season don’t mean much if you hit less than .100 during the World Series, if you come up to bat with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth and you strike out.

But an interesting corollary is the correction almost never gains the traction of the initial story.  If people believe that Obama is a Muslim, what are the odds that surfers are going to think Metallica are a bunch of anti-Internet goons?

Music publicity is old school.  You build a relationship and control it.  But now you’ve got people posting stories online who you have no relationship with, who you cannot control.  This means you should project the consequences of your actions.  And if a crisis erupts, you must take action immediately, when people are still paying attention.

Neil Diamond does a shitty show in the middle of the country and it makes the front page of Yahoo and the whole world knows.  Going on the offensive, almost immediately, Neil admits his voice was shot and offers refunds.  Case closed, because Neil jumped on the situation immediately, while it was still hot, with his truth.  I’m thinking Metallica should issue a press release immediately.  To give their side of the story.  Because upon further investigation, a lot of these issues are murkier.

That writer in Sweden?  Not only did he download an altered album, he linked to it.  Stunningly, Universal Music, Metallica’s distributor in the territory, was too stupid to realize the writer had a bigger platform than they did.  By denying the interview, however right in principle, they fanned the flames of a non-story.  If I were Lars, who is quite loquacious, I’d call up that interviewer right now and give him a story, and debate the length of his songs.  In most cases, if you give the writer what he wants, which is access, he backs down, overwhelmed in this case that Lars made contact and was humble. We debate music all the time, why can’t stars do it, especially in this Net era where everybody’s available and reachable at all times.  Only by being proactive can Metallica kill this story.  They’ve got to make it their own!

Then there’s the YouTube dust-up.

If you watch the clip, Hetfield looks innocent.

Metallica Live @ O2, London – James’ Speech abt Cameras

Why isn’t Metallica proactive here too?  Spreading this story instead of letting the Web own it, letting them look like ignorant losers?

You can’t prevent people from speaking their truth.  But you can combat it.  But you must do so almost instantly, with a sense of intimacy and humor, so it doesn’t look like you’re squashing a bug. You’ve got to own the story, otherwise the Web will and the info will make you look bad, when maybe you aren’t.

But you must strike when the iron is hot, when people are still paying attention.  Because a month from now, no one will care.  Days from now, no one will care.  You’ve got to get your story out while the audience is still here.