Social media has tremendous potential to make your brand look really, really good. Not only can it drive referrals and leads, but it can increase your brand recognition and loyalty. It can open up lines of communication with your customers, and endear you to your target market.
That's why it's such a shame when brands misuse social media. As the public face of your company online, using social media inappropriately can quickly lead to customer alienation and complete PR meltdowns. Following are some of the most disastrous, embarrassing, yet completely avoidable social media blunders we've seen over the past few years.
Misusing Hashtags
Hashtags are one of the best ways to reach outside your current sphere of followers, particularly on Twitter and Instagram. Posting relevant hashtags with your tweets and images can lead to new users finding and potentially following you. Posting irrelevant hashtags, on the other hand, can have embarrassing and even catastrophic consequences.
Take DiGiorno Pizza's recent Twitter mishap, for example. You may be familiar with the now ubiquitous hashtag, #WhyIStayed. It was created to be used by survivors of domestic violence to explain why they stayed and why they ultimately left abusive relationships, however DiGiorno's social media manager had an outside-the-box strategy for using it: "#WhyIStayed You had pizza."
Needless to say, Twitter users weren't fond of this inventive use of the hashtag, and DiGiorno's has been bending over backwards to apologize ever since.
Neglecting Customer Service
Some brands are still under the impression that social media is primarily about posting, tweeting and pinning. While this is certainly a big part of social media marketing, more and more consumers are expecting brands to be present and active in terms of responding to questions and complaints.
I recently got a chance to witness an unfortunate series of interactions on Facebook; unfortunate because a once-thriving company announced they were shutting their doors and liquidating their inventory. But also unfortunate because they forgot to cancel their scheduled posts.
While customers came to the Page in droves to complain of orders not being shipped, Lia Sophia's social media team forgot to stop promoting their products. The products, remember, that many customers had ordered the month before, and still hadn't received.
Lacking Sensitivity
You've got to feel a little bad for social media managers who inadvertently post something insensitive. What other medium can turn an innocent mistake into headline news in 10 seconds flat? But Epicurious's social media manager suggesting a scone may help alleviate the terror of the Boston Marathon tragedy? I don't feel bad for him at all.
After posting multiple insensitive and even exploitative tweets, the company apologized if their tweets "seemed insensitive". A more appropriate response would have been a sincere and heartfelt apology - which, to their credit, they eventually did.
Being Inappropriate
Branding expert Matthew Barby says "There's a big push within social media for business owners to be honest and transparent, and to show their personal side. People want to know they're dealing with other people, not faceless brands.
That said, some businesses take this a step too far, venting and just generally being completely inappropriate. While it's an extreme example, Amy's Baking Company's Facebook debacle is a good cautionary tale. After a particularly disastrous appearance on the show Kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsey, people flocked to their Facebook page to leave negative comments.
While you've got to feel a little bad for all the negative sentiment the owners received (although it's arguable they deserved it), the way they handled the criticism will forever live on as a case study in what not to do when it comes to social media marketing.
Posts like "You are all just punks", "You are trash", and "I am not stupid, all of you are" will forever be examples of what happens when business owners can't show a little restraint on social media. Especially since it appears the company has now abandoned their Facebook Page, leaving those fateful posts for all to see."
Deleting Negative Comments
Negative comments and feedback are going to happen, and how you respond to them says a lot about your brand. Some business owners are of the opinion that simply deleting negative comments is the way to go; getting rid of them instead of facing them head on.
When Smucker's came out against labelling GMO's in food in early 2014, many people came to the company's Facebook wall to complain. Rather than responding to the criticisms, Smucker's made the decision to simply delete all negative comments. They also chose to disable public comments on their wall entirely.
While the company claimed they would deal with comments and complaints internally, their strategy of silencing those who didn't agree with them hasn't done much in terms of building trust. That's a tough one to recover from!
Not Staying Up to Date on Current Events
This seems like a fairly innocuous tweet, right? Unless it's posted in the wake of the accidental death of a shooting teacher by his 9-year old student. Posted just three days after the incident, this tweet from NRA Women promoted an article about ways to keep children entertained at the shooting range.
Being aware of and sensitive to this terrible incident could have saved NRA Women, the women's branch of the NRA, a whole lot of embarrassment and PR trouble. An appropriate response following the incident would have acknowledged the accident and sent sincere condolences to the family of the teacher.
The tweet was removed about an hour after it was posted. No follow-up apology was ever posted, as far as I can tell.
Final Thoughts
A great general rule for social media marketing is to think twice and act once. Before posting, ask yourself: "Is there any way this could be seen as offensive or inappropriate?" Asking yourself this simple question can help you avoid a multitude of embarrassing and brand-damaging situations.
And if you're looking for ways to use social media in a way that actually builds your brand, you may be interested in my post, 8 Ways to Make Social Media Work For You.
What social media blunders have you seen businesses make? Share with us below!
