Everyone wants to jump on the social media bandwagon, but the route is paved with embarrassing gaffes and failed campaigns. Before you join in, carefully consider the risks of embarking on a social campaign. I offer six ways to mitigate those risks, most of which should be part of the planning process, as well as tips for what to do it if it goes wrong.
1. Make sure your business is suitable for a social campaign.
Before embarking on a social campaign, use a monitoring service like BrandWatch to see what the internet is saying about your brand. If sentiment is generally negative, identify and fix those core brand or product issues before you embark on your social campaign. You can’t fix bad service with a feel-good social campaign, but you can use one to promote your improvements and repair your social image after complaints have been resolved. This is especially true if you’ve made fundamental changes to your product and/or service in response to customer demands. Let your customers know you heard them.
2. Make sure your management isn’t controversial.
If you’re a major-brand refrigerator manufacturer, you’re not likely to offend people, but controversy could still find you if you’re not careful. Chick-Fil-A would have a harder time running a social campaign not because their food offends people, but because public statements from their owners do. Other branding or infrastructural changes might need to be made in order to accommodate for another stab at a social strategy. When provided an opportunity, the public will always use a social campaign as an entry point to make their opinion known. Hint: If you must do a social campaign in the midst of controversy, then avoid platforms that allow users to freely post comments that will be seen by everyone (see point #4 for more details).
