Social Media Gone Wrong: What NOT To Do Online

Prepared by:Chad Wiebesick

Director of social media & interactive marketing, Pure MichiganTwitter: @Wiebesick

March 7, 2016

Know your audience.

What Single Post Caused People To Unlike the Pure Michigan Facebook Page?

What Should We Do?

Let Your Advocates Support You

Some people get fired even before they begin their job.

Using emoji’s can get you fired

What does this tweet mean?

He’s probably the first person fired for poor emoji use.

Lesson learned: In the heat of a moment, take time to think how others might view your tweet.

Check your work before you hit ‘send’.

People react with mocking responses…

...and people react with harsh criticism

Shortly, Total Beauty apologizes

Acknowledge the mistake

Don’t tweet and drive.

Don’t automate your social media feeds.

The New England Patriots wanted to thank their fans for reaching

one million Twitter followers with an automated tweet that showed

each fan's Twitter handle on a digital Patriots jersey if they

retweeted this message celebrating reaching one million.

Patroit’s automated Twitter reply sends out racial slur.

And here’s the subsequent apology.

Even smart, successful people can make big mistakes. And on social media, those

mistakes aren’t easy to fix.

She insults an entire continent of 50+ countries, people with AIDS, African-Americans, white people, the medical community, the international travel business, people with an actual sense of humor, and more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc5NUSKRogI

#HasJustineLandedYet trends worldwide

Brands, web celebrities join global mockery of Justine’s pro-AIDS tweet

She lands…and gets fired.

She’s not a bad person, just bad at Twitter.

“I lost my job, my reputation and I’m not able to date anymore.”

Here’s another reason to not focus on number of fans.

New York State Has The Largest Number of Facebook Fans

• The most popular age group are 13-17 year old teenagers.• Most of their fans live in New York City.

State of Florida Has Far Fewer Fans, But More Engaged

• Average age of fans are 35-54, a demographic more likely to have budget to travel.

• Most fans live out-of-state, a more lucrative traveler.

Another reason to not focus on fans

US Airways sends NSFW graphic tweet

US Airways finally removes the tweet after nearly one hour and apologizes.

Be timely and topical, but smart.

Three Words: Building Brand Awareness

“Here’s how by reacting quickly to a rather obscure tweet, we

generated $17 million in PR buzz.”

Dec 6, 11:49 am

TravelWisconsin.com

Dec 6, 2:45 pm

Dec 6, 7:17 pm

What, If Anything, Do We Do? • 1 tweet• 11 retweets• 1 story in Kalamazoo Gazette

Dec 7, 11:45 am WhoIsTheRealMittenState.com

Dec 7, 4:43 pmStatewide News

Dec 7, 7:23 pmWisconsin Releases Another Mitten

Travel Wisconsin put up a new version of the mitten in the green and gold of the Green Bay Packers, boasting the football team's unbeaten record and ribbing their rivals, the 7-5 Detroit Lions.

“Is Michigan or Wisconsin the Mitten State?”Google AdWords

Dec 7, 10:20 pmNational News

Dec 13

The Mitten Drive Prompted More Conversations

Dec 14, 2:20 International News

Results:•Over 300 news stories from state, national and international radio, newspaper and TV •396 million media impressions•$17.7 million in earned media value

This tweet went over about as well as you'd expect.

Really?! Kenneth Cole jokes about tragic international event to sell shoes again

And another example

Epicurious sends individual apologies, though half-hearted copy-and-pasting is disingenuous.

Lesson Learned: Don’t make light of serious situations. If you do, apologize authentically, not as lip service.

Here’s what happens when social media managers inadvertently post to

the wrong account

Maybe the admin is fed up after a bad day and decides to take it out on the

brand’s soapbox.

Or maybe it’s an honest mistake, and they think they’re signed into their

personal account

Good-humored tweet acknowledges the mistake

Sometimes, the way it’s handled can redeem (or further condemn) your brand

Lesson Learned: Be careful who you put in charge, and put policies in place

as checks and balances

Sometimes an account gets hijacked.

University of Michigan

Alert audiences on your other channels…and change your passwords

Access is restored! (Or so they thought)

Burger King gets hacked and masquerades as McDonalds

The next day, hackers break into Jeep’s Twitter account

But, sometimes brands fake being hacked

Lesson learned: Create a ‘Social Media Hacking Policy’

Strong password security is not enough. Use two-step authentication.

Research trending hashtags before you use them.

…Quickly Apologized.

Lesson Learned: Just because it’s trending doesn’t mean it’s something that you could or should capitalize on

Evaluate how new hashtags might be construed.

#SusanAlbumParty

#susAnalBumParty

Closing Thoughts

If you mess up, own it, say you’re sorry and then move on. Don’t become a case study in my presentation!

• Chad Wiebesick• wiebesickc@michigan.org• Twitter: @wiebesick• Facebook.com/cwiebesick• Linkedin.com/in/wiebesick• (517) 335-1083