In every business that uses social media marketing, it is great to have a crisis response team that would handle any social media crisis within your brand. However, prevention is still better than damage control. The repercussions from a social media fail in business can be very substantial. It could result in customer distrust, lawsuit, and permanent closure of a business.
Here are some obvious dos and don'ts that you can consider avoiding social media fails.
- Always keep your cool. When posting, responding to a feedback or review, or when dealing with your detractors, do not go way off course. You need to stabilize your emotions and ensure that you are consistent with your brand voice, and the values of your company at all times. Address negative comments professionally and appropriately.
- Avoid being in constant sales mode. Your audience will not be very happy if you constantly push and promote your product and services to them on all your social media platforms and all the days of the week. Create and post content that also adds value. Post something that is engaging or leading to a conversation starter with your sales prospect but does not promote your product repetitively. Build relationships instead of directly selling to them.
- Keep away from inappropriate newsjacking. Anything you post on your social media should be appropriate to your brand and industry. Do not use a hashtag or photos to piggyback on something that is completely off the mark. When a brand newsjack a trending but inappropriate story, it can be a mess. Say, for example, plugging your brand to a tragic current event just because it’s trending but has no relevance to your brand is not just cool.
- Do not skip the research. Most of the time, this applies to the use of a hashtag trend. Make sure to find out the real context behind a hashtag and why it was used before using it on your marketing campaign, too. Some hashtags may pertain to negative sentiment, a tragic event, or a sensitive topic so it’s better to do your research first.
- Stay away from politics. Especially if it is not related to your brand, veer away from posting your opinions and views about politics. Business and politics should not mix as it can get very messy. Worst case consequences are death threats or social media harassment from those who oppose your political stance.
- Choose the right influencer. Businesses collaborate with influencers for brand awareness campaigns and choose them as their brand ambassadors or advocates to promote their products and services. However, selecting the right influencer for your brand is crucial. It is not just about the hundreds of thousands of subscribers or followers your influencer has. Consider the influencer’s reputation and relevance to your audience more than anything else. Go back to number 4, do your research about them, or know them personally to check if their personality and credibility would meet your companies’ standards.
- Be updated with the current trends. Your business must know what is going on with the world and keeping up with current events, religious holidays, celebrations can greatly influence your content of the day. At some point, you may need to update, delete, or delay your scheduled post of the day if something happened unexpectedly as it would impact your message and could get misinterpreted by your followers.
