Social media is incredibly powerful –
it can keep us all in contact with friends and family, market our books and
lose us great opportunities. Yes that is right you read the last part
correctly. Social media can be as much a pain as a gain. Here are six social
media blunders that have cost people dearly and what we can learn from them.
Connor Riley had a job offer from
Cisco when she tweeted – “Cisco just
offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against
the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.”
Shortly afterwards Cisco employee
gave a tweet back - “Who is the hiring manager? I’m sure they would love to
know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the Web.”
But if that wasn’t enough, she was
soon the target of several internet trolls that called her names that would upset even
the thickest skinned of us. It is likely it will be a long time before the “fatty
Cisco” incident is forgotten forever.
Lesson learned: If want to say
anything that could be construed as negative, use privacy functions that limit
who see it – or better keep it to yourself and don’t say it at all.
You can’t control hastags and if we
have learnt anything with social media is that people who really want to promote negative
aspects of your brand - will. With McDonalds they wanted people to share their
positive experiences in their restaurants – however consumers quickly did the
exact opposite.
Lesson learned: Use hashtags that
can’t be turned into negative aspects about you.
Waitress Ashley Johnson decided to
take her frustration out on Facebook after she didn’t receive the tip she expected
from two customers. She took the extraordinary step of mentioning the restaurant
by name. Unfortunately her bosses discovered the update and she was sacked for “speaking
disparagingly about customers and casting the restaurant in a bad light on a
social network.”
Lesson learned: Be careful what you
say about customers online. You never know who is reading.
Teacher Ashley Payne was forced to
resign after she posted a photo online of her out drinking. Someone obviously
took offense to the message as the head of her school was e-mailed with a copy
of the photo.
Lesson learned: If you are in a
public facing position (even if you don’t realize / advertise it) keep your
social media profiles professional. If something is deemed unsuitable for your
main audience someone will let you know one way or another.
Read the exchange and you’ll see why
it was a blunder.
Lesson learned: Where to start? I
think the important points to take away are remember who you add onto Facebook,
don’t write negative comments and be honest.
Back in 2009 Habitat sent out a
number of tweets that contained popular and trending hashtags that had limited
if anything to do with the message. The crisis exploded later on when they took
advantage of events happening in Iran at the time. Habitat later apologized and
stated the hashtags were not authorised.
Lesson learned: Use meaningful
related hashtags not just any that are trending.
I hope you have found this article
useful. If you have any more examples please let us know in the comments below.
