WHEN I compile my list of the biggest social-media fails of the year, one thing is always the same: It’s enough to make me want to pound my head on my desk. As readers, you know how to avoid this stuff by now.
For those who don’t, let’s examine a few standouts from the list with the sole purpose of explaining why it shouldn’t have happened and how you can make sure it never happens to you.
Is it a fit—I mean, really a fit? On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Krazy Glue did something that put it in a sticky situation with fans and customers.
It took this famous quote from King and used it to promote its own brand on Twitter: “I have decided to stick with love, hate is too great a burden to bear.”
Glue equals stick and apparently that was enough.
I can see so clearly how it happens.
Brand sees a trending topic—in this case the King Holiday—and decides it must find a way to insert itself into the conversation.
After all, that’s good social media: Find a way to insert yourself into the story. But that tip only works if you are part of the story, and Krazy Glue most certainly is not. And by doing what it did, it looks desperate and unaware. No one went out and bought more Krazy Glue after seeing this tweet, but they did make fun of them on Twitter.
Simple fix: Don’t do it. If you really fit in the conversation, fine. If you are stretching it even a little bit, step back and consider the consequences.
Think before you retweet and share. When someone asked Donald Trump if he would retweet a photo, Trump did it. He thought he was tweeting a photo of this person’s parents, but he actually retweeted a photo of serial killers Fred and Rosemary West. Trump has always had an itchy Twitter finger, but he could have done a simple Google Image search to be sure before just blindly retweeting. And that’s the lesson here: Know what you are sharing before you share it.
There’s a delete button, but it doesn’t matter. When the Dave & Buster’s account changed no one into “no Juan” in a tweet about tacos, no one was laughing. Whoever did it, whether it was a teenage marketing intern or his or her 12-year-old brother, brands big and small always have to think about what’s on the other side of the tweet. You can delete the actual tweet, but you can’t delete screenshots, and you can’t delete people’s negative reactions.
Strange game: The only winning move is not to play. Joshua got it right in War Games, but Bill Cosby’s camp didn’t. Right after all the assault allegations started to turn up and spread, they put out a call on Twitter asking people to meme him. And that’s how a social-media firestorm is born.
Important lesson here: Anytime you ask someone to add words to your photo, you are asking for trouble. I’ll sum it all up this way: When in doubt, play it safe.
Scott Kleinberg / Chicago Tribune
