Ghosts and goblins have begun to creep from their hiding spots, lurking in the shadows as they get ready to embark upon their annual adventures. Think you’re safe from this fall season’s frights and follies just because you’re hiding behind your laptop screen? Think again! Where social media is found, scary things are just a ‘send’ button away. Of course, we all know that businesses aren’t immune to online “boos” where reputation management’s concerned. But here are a few horrifying brand nightmares sure to scare you more than anything you’ll encounter this Halloween:
Managing multiple social media accounts can be tough enough when you’re operating as the face of your company to online information seekers. But, when you’re juggling personal accounts and your employer’s logins, you could easily broadcast your personal business to the people who follow your business’s news on accident if you’re not careful. One false move and that status update that was meant to make your friends laugh is now being seen by thousands of people who have no context to the story. Yikes.
In some cases, this could be passed off as an innocent mistake, but there are plenty of personal posts that certainly don’t belong in the public spectrum.
If this happens to your company, you’ll want to go into PR-recovery mode fast. Remove the post immediately from your company pages. If the content you posted was particularly inappropriate, acknowledge your mistake to your audience. If you can make light of it with a bit of humor, that’s even better! If you don’t realize the horrifying mishap until well after the fact, you’ll want to start monitoring any conversations happening and address the audience ASAP.
So, you meant to upload a “Happy Halloween” graphic on behalf of your brand, but you clicked another file with the same name. Before you know it you’ve just posted an extremely embarrassing photo of your CEO at the Halloween After-Party. Talk about a nightmare. Uploading the wrong photo is bad enough but putting an employee in a bad light is a new level of terrifying. Depending on how bad the photo is and the type of audience you have, this could land you in some really hot water.
If this happens to your company, come out from under your desk and go into recovery mode. Remove the not-so-good photo and replace it with the correct one. The faster you do this, the faster you can eliminate any further opportunities for it to be seen. Check your page direct messages for those who notified you of the mistake and thank them for looking out for the brand. Search your hashtags, RT’s, page posts, and any other conversations to see who might be talking about the photo and address them head-on. Doing so proves you’re a human who can make mistakes, and shows you’re owning up to it! Lastly, make sure you give your CEO a heads up and an apology.
We’ve seen it happen before. A brand uploads a post with good intentions and it doesn’t go over as planned. In fact, it takes a turn for the worse and now your brand is under fire.
If this happens to your company, and we hope it never does, you’ll want to have a plan of action. Work with your internal team to determine where you went wrong. Review the reactions from your audience and listen to why they are upset or offended and reflect back on your post. Once you determine the root cause of the uproar, it’s time to start apologizing to your audience as a whole. Create a video, letter, or a post from your brand expressing your sincere regrets on the content and you understand their concern. From there, pick up and move on, and let this be a lesson learned for the future.
At Zero Gravity Marketing, we’re ready for Halloween! Armed with our social media super hero capes and dozens of (helpful) tricks and treats, this may well be one of our favorite holidays! Ready to see what we’re all about? We’ll have our bucket of candy on hand, so we can deliver a sweet social experience to your team!