If you have been reading and following our blog, you will know that we are a big advocate of Social Media, and that is why we integrate it within all of our SEO campaigns. However there is a right way and a wrong way to utilize social media. A single post has the opportunity to go viral and if you are a big company or have a ton of clients following you, you have to play it safe. If you didn’t mean to make a post under your companies account vs. your personal or if you post a negative response to a client, that can have severe implications. We decided to go a little deeper into the social media stratosphere to determine what you should do if you had a social media blunder. Here are a couple of steps you could take to make sure you prevent this from happening as well as address the issue in a prompt and timely manner.
Let’s go a little deeper …
Since brands have been struggling to either establish themselves in the market or maintain their current market position, they keep experimenting with their approach to reach out to their customers. In that they use funny, wicked, crazy and entertaining videos, audios, graphics and text messages to catch our attention.
Instead of using direct marketing tactics, they approach their audience indirectly by using creativity and exciting techniques. So if it’s a holiday season, or an event of public importance, businesses opt for indirect selling. They may congratulate their audience on a specific occasion, or share condolences with the victims of a bomb attack, or an incident of communal outbreak. This is another approach to build the brand presence.
As a marketer you should ensure that you don’t end up screwing everything up. Instead of putting a message on the social channels, you can express your grief about a massacre on your website. But make sure that it’s simple, short, crisp and to the point. Salute the brave hearts who lost their lives and show sympathy to the victims of the incident.
Remember: – Playing with public’s emotions is a very sensitive issue. So beware!!!
Apart from such mournful incidences, brands may also talk about funny moments of a concert, movie shoot, etc. just to get more user engagement. If you are also planning to do something like this, always consult a professional who can guide how you can invite healthy conversation on a given incident or a silly goof up of a celeb.
One important thing you should keep in mind is the use of hashtags. Since hashtags are usually used to promote a keyword or a point of view, it should be used with caution in such situations. And if at all you make a mistake on a public platform, don’t ever hesitate to make a public apology.
Where a simple sorry wouldn’t work well, you need to bring human touch to the apology and do it skillfully.
Another important tip is not to schedule your posts (or use tools) in such situations. This because you may not know what political orders you may be asked to follow about writing something about a particular incident on social channels.
Social media is all about agility, if you wouldn’t write about an event or an incident, your competitor would do. So it’s always better to get your facts correct before reacting on any situation and making a fool of yourself.