6 Lessons to Learn From Social Media PR Disasters
This time last month US Airlines were left red-faced when an employee replied to a customer with a cryptic tweet, accompanied by an image of a woman and a very strategically placed toy aeroplane. Understandably, this social media marketing blunder horrified the world and the image went viral. In addition, the airline’s bizarre apology was retweeted over 12,000 times.
The PR fallout from this ill-advised US Airlines post served as a reminder of the power of social media and how it can cause irrevocable damage to a company’s brand.
Here are the six lessons to learn from this PR plane crash, and other social media disasters:
The PR fallout from this ill-advised US Airlines post served as a reminder of the power of social media and how it can cause irrevocable damage to a company’s brand.
Here are the six lessons to learn from this PR plane crash, and other social media disasters:
Select your admins carefully. A CEO will generally not have enough time to tweet consistently, and therefore will pass on the task to a junior employee. If you’re in this position, choose just one or two admins to manage your accounts, and review their online posting habits on their personal accounts before you hand over the reins.
If it’s borderline offensive, it’s offensive. Earlier this year, Kenneth Cole made a judgement call on Twitter that was slammed by the public when the fashion powerhouse piggybacked off the #Cairo devastation to announce their spring line. Some were amused, most were mortified - it’s always better to avoid bad taste.
Remove defunct admins immediately. As soon as an employee’s posting privileges have been revoked – for whatever reason – remove them and update the password pronto. This practise should be built in to your exit interview process.
Do your research. Recently, Valentino posted an image of Amy Adams, advertising in a press release the actress sporting their new handbag. The only problem was, it was taken at Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s funeral. The public accused the Italian institution of insensitivity when in actually, they claimed, it was a genuine oversight; they’d posted the photo without validating its source. Always triple check where your images and words originated if you haven’t generated them yourself.
Brief your employees. Every business must have a policy detailing the company’s standard on social media covering everything from swearing to style, and whoever has access to these channels should review this document and sign it.
Use the right tools. Micromanaging is onerous, and not the culture of Marketing Eye, however ensuring the right messages are delivered to our 25,000 social media followers is incredibly important. HootSuite allows you to pre-load tweets for approval at a later date. If you don’t manage your own account, make time every day to scan the posts made on your behalf to avoid a potentially hazardous situation.
How do you prevent social media PR disasters in your business? Have you managed a marketing blooper? We’d love to hear from you on Twitter or on Facebook.
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