The Social Media Dos and Don'ts for Businesses
Sep 16, 2016
Social media is a great tool for generating interest around your business, and being free makes it all the sweeter! Many businesses now use social media accounts to market their brands and products, but some are doing it better than others.
Companies have diffferent takes on how to put their businesses across on social media platforms; some take a very serious approach whereas others are just a constant stream of jokes and puns. But whatever is going to generate the most positive hype around your business is all that matters.
However, this can sometimes backfire; what one person finds funny won't be to someone else, which could subsequently offend someone - not good when trying to promote your company!
We've put together a list of what we think are the best and the worst cases across the internet of business social media accounts.
Best
Innocent
The innocent drink brand is, in our opinion, one of the best social media sites out there right now. They are witty and clever with their posts and have managed to gain over 500,000 likes on their Facebook page and nearly a quarter of a million followers on Twitter!
One of their best ideas led to them being featured in national newspapers - they documented taking a 'Floor 4, do not remove' stapler all over the world.
This form of pranks and humour, linked with the latest events from the news, is a winner for gaining followers on social media.
Netflix
Netflix regularly posts funny updates using Gifs from their shows and about binge watching their programmes. They have recognised what people are saying about them as a brand and are responding to it in a funny way. This is a great way to connect with your customers.
By listening and responding to what customers say about your company - and with some additional humour - you can make a great social media presence.
Old Spice
The Old Spice brand has great humour on their social media pages; they have taken to using Photoshop to not-so-subtly merge their products into snapshots.
The blatent bad taste of the photos is what make the page so funny. Being able to make fun of yourself is a great way to get customers laughing with you, and encourage more followers who want to be in on the joke.
Worst
DiGiorno Pizza
Ah the infamous hashtag. DiGiorno Pizza was scorned by it when they saw that #whyIstayed was trending, but didn’t look into why it was. They tweeted a series of funny tweets using the hashtag including ‘#whyIstayed they had pizza’ then realised the hashtag was about domestic violence…
The moral of this story? Always check why something is trending before tweeting a funny response to it! Otherwise your company could get huge backlash and seem insensitive to important issues.
HMV
When HMV went into liquidation, the company decided to coordinate a mass firing of 60 employees all at once. The fired staff then came to the realisation that they controlled the social media and had nothing to lose, thus began the live tweeting of the firings. They even used the hashtag #hmvxfactorfiring and a highlight was the marketing director quoted saying ‘how do I shut down twitter?’
A lesson we can learn from HMV, make sure to take employees off of the social media accounts before firing them!
Epicurious
Epicurious took brand promoting one step too far when they tweeted in response to the Boston bombings in 2013. They used the incident to promote their scones and breakfast cereals, tweeting ‘Boston, our hearts are with you. Here’s a bowl of breakfast energy we could all use to start today.’
Not all current events are a way to promote your brand; be selective in what you choose to tweet about and how your company will come across. After this catastrophic tweet was posted the company was attacked for their insensitivity and tastelessness.
As we can see, not all social media updates will lead to good marketing for your company. Although you have more freedom to use humour and to be more casual online, you still need to be aware and responsible when posting updates. Otherwise, you could damage your company instead of improving it.
At The Creation Lab we handle many companies social media updates and blog posts, take a look at some examples here. If your business needs some help in this area, or any others, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with our friendly team.
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