2016 was no different. As always, a whole bunch of folks who really should’ve known better managed to trip themselves up on social media anyway. And yep – I wrote about it. In fact, you can see my list of 2016’s Great Big Social Media Fails and Lessons Learned for yourself over at MarketingProfs.

Read the article and take a good look at some of the inventive ways brands managed to get all knotted up in social media’s tangled web. You’ll see a common theme emerging: poor planning and a woeful ignorance of the power and caprice of social media (and let’s not leave out a lack of common sense) caused brands and individuals alike a whole lotta heartburn. But, what’s most important is that we learn from these missteps of others.

Someone actually thought this was a good idea. It wasn’t.

Failure is always an option…but it’s one you don’t have to choose. Check out 2016’s Great Big Social Media Fails and Lessons Learned. And while you’re there, be sure to explore some of the other great articles and useful resources that MarketingProfs has available. You’ll be glad you did.

Failure is always an option. Lessons we should take to heart from 2016’s top #socialmedia fails:
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Pretty heady stuff. You’d think by now, everyone would know better. But apparently that’s not the case, because it just…keeps…happening. Search “social media backlash” on Google and you’ll find yourself awash in links leading to eye-popping examples of spectacularly bad decision-making. Like the pet owner who thought posting a Facebook photo of her dog with its muzzle duct-taped shut was a brilliant idea (it wasn’t). Or the woman who was infuriated that restaurant servers would rather tend to a 70-year old heart attack victim than finish waiting on her table. And who can forget that University of Oklahoma fraternity whose racist chant was posted to YouTube for all – including their parents and future employers – to see?

Sadly, the carnage isn’t limited to just individual users suffering the consequences of bad social media choices; both big brands and small businesses are guilty of it, too. Just ask F&R Auto Sales, Tinder, or Amazon. (Side note: don’t pick a fight with people who buy their ink by the barrel or their bandwidth by the terabyte. Just sayin’.)

Even now, brand marketers still haven’t fully come to grips with the true nature of social media: it’s a volatile environment that must be approached – and managed – strategically. It’s a skill that even the most socially experienced brands can fail at. Just take a look at these outstanding examples from 2015, and the lessons that can be learned:

• Coke’s #MakeItHappy Campaign Gets Hijacked. Coke launched a social media campaign turning tweets hashtagged with #MakeItHappy in funny ASCII art. With a little extra effort, the upbeat, feel-good campaign could’ve been the brand-enhancing success that the company hoped for.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be – the perpetual bad boys at Gawker managed to trick the beverage giant into tweeting out ASCII images containing text taken from Hitler’s Mein Kampf. In the end, Coke was forced to shut down the campaign. #NotSoHappy

Lesson learned: Make sure you examine your social media campaigns from every angle before you launch. Spend the extra time and resources required to ensure your brand doesn’t suffer unexpected consequences from a grand idea gone wrong.

• BlackBerry’s Tweets Send the Wrong Message. Getting people to talk about your brand in the socialverse is a laudable goal. Getting them to talk about your brand because you didn’t pay attention to details? Not so much.

Smartphone maker BlackBerry followed all the right rules for crafting a successful tweet – a snappy call-to-action statement, leading to a link, and backed up by a beauty shot of the product. It was eminently sharable…but for all the wrong reasons. BlackBerry’s tweet was sent from an iPhone, a detail clearly visible to anyone using third-party Twitter applications like Tweetdeck.

What’s worse? This wasn’t even the first time the company had been caught using a competitor’s product to promote their own. Nothing builds confidence in a brand like knowing its employees prefer to use someone else’s products rather than its own.

Lesson learned: Sweat the small stuff. Pay strict attention to the fine details because even if you don’t, the socialverse will.

• Those Who Cannot Remember the Past are Condemned to Repeat It. Apparently having learned not a dang thing from the #AskJPM fiasco (or even Coke, for that matter), SeaWorld, author E.L. James, and even The Donald rolled out Twitter “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) Q&As, with predictable results.

Twitter trolls reveled in opportunities to hurl abuse at these easy targets, peppering them with questions like, “Do you really believe Shamu Stadium is the most advanced marine mammal habitat? Have you seen the ocean? #AskSeaWorld” and “Which do you hate more, women or the English language? #AskElJames”. I’m not even going to try to touch the crazy that came and continues to come out of the #AskTrump AMA (you’ll just have to go read it for yourself).

Lesson learned: Having a poor grasp of your brand’s perception among social media audiences is an entrée to danger. Know what you’re getting yourself into. And as I’ve said previously, always be prepared with a social media crisis plan in your back pocket, ready to go at a moment’s notice.

• Do What, Now? In August 2015, pen manufacturer Bic South Africa posted what it thought was an empowering Facebook ad for National Women’s Day, encouraging women to “Look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man, and work like a boss.” The ad had just the opposite effect, enraging its target audience rather than producing any feel-good vibes. One deleted quasi-apology later, Bic finally managed to issue a sincere mea culpa that finally (sort of) quelled the furor.

Not to be outdone, Bud Light launched its own #UpForWhatever campaign, hoping to strike the right lighthearted note with consumers. Its questionable (and as Salon puts it, “perfectly avoidable”) tagline choice, “The perfect beer for removing ‘no’ from your vocabulary for the night”, didn’t just fall on deaf ears – it outraged potential customers (and social activists) of both genders. The brewer quickly backtracked, saying, “It’s clear that this particular message missed the mark, and we regret it. We would never condone disrespectful or irresponsible behavior. As a result, we have immediately ceased production of this message on all bottles.”

Lesson learned: Brands cannot be tone-deaf when crafting messaging for social media campaigns. Be aware of trending topics and current events. Remember that risqué messaging can be used effectively, but only if done carefully and with much forethought.

Don’t let these goofs and gaffes scare you – social media remains a wonderful, effective avenue for reaching and engaging with diverse audiences on a global scale. But, it’s also a fickle medium that can turn a promising opportunity into a sticky situation. Being well prepared in advance and expecting the unexpected will help you and your brand make the most of the socialverse. Happy socializing!

You are what you tweet: lessons learned (and unlearned) from the front lines of #socialmedia.
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It starts with one snarky tweet, or maybe an angry post in the /r/rage subreddit. The next thing you know, your inbox is choked with Google alerts, your company is trending on Twitter (and not in a good way), Buzzfeed is snickering at you, your PR director is blowing up your phone, and your boss needs you in the conference room right now.

The Internet vigilante justice mob has gotten out its pitchforks and torches, and is out for blood…yours. So, what do you do now?

In Part I of this series, we looked at a few of the more spectacular social media fails in recent memory. Now, it’s time to talk about what happens when trouble turns up on your brand’s doorstep. With the viral nature of the socialverse, even small missteps have the potential to spiral up into a full-blown social media crisis. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t defuse the situation or better yet, turn it into an opportunity for engagement with your target audience.

When faced with a horde of noisy barbarians at the gate, it’s natural to go on the defensive; we instinctively want to put up walls and man the barricades. But when the social media snowball gets rolling and it’s aimed right in your direction, giving into a siege mentality can do significant harm. An overly defensive response – or worse, no reaction at all – can impart lasting negative perceptions of your brand, devaluing it in the long run. Is the company hiding something? Unwilling to admit when a mistake has been made? An irresponsible corporate citizen that can’t be bothered with public opinion?

The U.S. Air Force aims high with its Web Posting Response Assessment strategy

By being proactive rather than reactive, you both short-circuit the crisis cycle and turn it into an opportunity to forge a deeper connection with your intended audience. How? With a carefully considered strategic crisis management plan developed in advance. Hammering out a well-crafted blueprint for dealing with social crisis situations ahead of time, and keeping that plan in your back pocket until it’s really needed is a wiser move than coming up with something on the fly. This forward-looking preparation will help you get out in front of things and better weather the coming storm. And who knows better about strategic planning than the U.S. Military?

The U.S. Air Force has a great tool in place for its personnel – a twelve-point plan, creatively named the “Air Force Web Posting Response Assessment”. It clearly defines a strategy for responding to and managing perceptions in the blogosphere, and even categorizes bloggers by type. Having this plan as a resource for its airmen and airwomen takes the guesswork out of the equation; when a problem arises, they can quickly and easily refer to this tool and then respond accordingly.

Your social media plan should encompass all elements typically found in crisis management plans: who will be on your crisis team, what resources you have available, when to put the plan into action, and how you will respond to a given situation. It should have a clearly outlined communications component that takes into account the fluid, real-time nature of the socialverse, as well as long-term plans for tracking and analyzing the impact of both the event and your brand’s response. While your social media crisis plan should be crafted to reflect your brand’s goals and values, Interprose uses the REACT method to help its own clients formulate tailored strategies closely aligning with their unique culture and principles:

R –  Recognize there’s a problem. Read, read, read what’s being posted about your brand on key social platforms. Research what’s being said about your company, your brand, and its personnel. Register for Google Alerts so you can see developments in real-time.

E –   Execute your social media crisis strategy, engage all of the appointed crisis team members, escalate the problem to the highest leadership levels in the company if needed, and expend the resources necessary to mitigate the problem.

A –  Analyze the situation, and act carefully and logically. Avoid the temptation to shoot from the lip. No knee-jerk reactions!

C –  Counter any developments with a strategic response. Capitalize on opportunities for meaningful dialog with your target audience, whether via email, a blog post, tweets, or timely Facebook updates.

T –  Trolls…don’t feed ‘em. Target your response to those who matter – thought leaders, key stakeholders, and your primary audience – and do so in a timely fashion.

By using a methodology like REACT, you should be able to create a social media crisis management plan that will help you, your company, or your brand cope effectively when disaster strikes. The socialverse can be a wild and wooly place but if you’re smart and more importantly, well prepared, it can also be a great communications platform. Establishing a social media crisis management plan before trouble comes calling will help your brand to not only survive, but also thrive.

Now, go forth and be social.

You’ve seen them on reddit, Slideshare, Twitter, and Facebook. You’ve probably rolled your eyes, laughed ruefully, and shook your head, wondering why, oh why, would anyone post something so stupid on (insert your favorite social platform here)? Didn’t they know what would happen? Didn’t they stop to think before they sent that tweet or posted that update? Didn’t they know any better?! Oh, the outrage!

It’s easy to point, laugh, and tsk your tongue when the crisis befalls someone else, but step back for just a moment…what would you do if it were you or your company in the crosshairs of the Internet vigilante justice mob? Would you be prepared for or able to deflect the slings and arrows of a rampaging social horde calling for your CEO’s head on a pike?

Things happen, social media fails happen. Frequently. Social is an ever-changing, ever-evolving maelstrom that can waylay even the most seasoned and intrepid social practitioner. You’d think by now, with social media slowly edging past that awkward, gangly teenager phase, companies and brands would have a clearer understanding of how this stuff works. There are 1.27 billion Facebook users, Instagram has more than 200 million users, at least 241 million users are tweeting their hearts out, and in March 2014 alone, some 115 million unique visitors visited 5.38 billion pages on reddit. At this point, businesses should “get” social media, right?

Wrong.

Social media failures remain a common, everyday occurrence. Who could forget Amy’s Baking Company’s epic tantrum, Justine Sacco’s Twitter misstep, or Self Magazine mocking a cancer survivor’s running tutu as “lame”? But for the purposes of this post, probably the greatest example of how what you don’t know about social can kill your brand, is the “#AskJPM” debacle.

JP Morgan declares defeat at the hands of the Internet vigilante justice mob

Just as a refresher: someone at JP Morgan (JPM) thought it would be a good idea to host a live Twitter Q&A with Vice Chairman, Jimmy Lee. The idea behind this was that he’d offer career advice to budding capitalists…a great idea on paper, but a recipe for disaster in the real world. The #AskJPM hashtag was immediately hijacked and the company was hectored by a tsunami of snarky tweets like “What’s it like working with Mexican drug cartels? Do they tip?”, “Do you have a secret jail in your offices so your executives get at least one chance to see the inside of one?”, and “Is it easier to purchase a congressional representative or a senator?” Eventually, JPM declared defeat at the hands of the Internet vigilante justice mob, canceling its Twitter chat, and crawling back to its boardroom, most likely whimpering the whole way.

So how did a good idea go so very wrong? While this is just speculation, it looks like a case of miscalculation on the part of JPM’s team. JPM appears to have seriously misjudged public sentiment, and went ahead with its Twitter chat despite not having an executable social media crisis management plan in place. The resulting backlash is every PR person’s nightmare scenario, and could have long-term implications for JPM’s overall brand value.

But it didn’t have to happen this way.

There will always be pitfalls and potholes on the road to social media glory, and you can’t possibly foresee or even plan for every potential scenario. Inevitably, you, your brand, or your client will experience some sort of challenge – or heaven forbid, a full-blown crisis – in the social arena. However, your level of preparedness for these unseen obstacles is what will determine whether the experience becomes a minor footnote in the annals of Internet history or the gold standard for what not to do in social media, ever.

In Part II, we’ll share some ideas about social media crisis planning and lay out a series of actionable steps – what we at Interprose like to call the REACT plan – that companies and brands can use to navigate their way through a social media crisis. Until then, stay social…but stay safe.

H/T to Natalia Rojas for her amazing “Faces of Facebook” app. Check it out!