Leverage Your Brand: How Social Tragedies Occur
Wondering when your brand should avoid using social media to advance its goals and values? Look no further than the Boston Marathon bombings. With the tragedy of this week’s Boston Marathon bombing, major cellphone services in the Boston area were shut down, but social media was alive and well. Thriving, in fact.
A recent study shows that 70 percent of people get most of their news from their friends and family on Facebook. During this event, some brands chose to stay silent on Facebook while others updated their cover photo image within an hour of the breaking news.
Never Use Tragic News to Leverage Your Brand/Content
One brand by the name of Epicurious used their Twitter account as a way to promote recipe content. The message read, “In honor of Boston and New England, may we suggest: whole-grain cranberry scones! epi.us/14sahki.”
As you would have guessed, the tweet ended up being removed and the community manager apologized for the tweet Epicurious made: “Our tweets this morning were frankly, insensitive. Our deepest, sincerest apologies.”
This is the power of social media. All of a sudden, you BECOME the story. If you want to be a part of the news, stay on topic. Don’t become the social tragedy. Don’t use tragic news to leverage your brand.