(Newswire.net — August 27, 2019) — Creating attention-grabbing social media posts that indirectly promotes your brand or product takes a lot of practice and trial and error. The problem with errors in social media marketing is that it often attracts a lot of negative attention towards your brand.
One mistimed or a misphrased post can tarnish the brand image forcing you to look for ways to minimize the damage. This is the exact reason why most companies hire reputed social media services to create and review posts before they are out there for the world to see and judge. Most social media companies have experts who study the case studies of infamous social media fiascos and learn from them to avoid making similar mistakes. If you already have business profiles for your company on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other platforms, you should do the same.
The following are 6 social media posts that ended up hurting businesses.
The Cinnabon Carrie Fisher Fiasco
The giant bakery chain, Cinnabon had to delete a tweet they posted after the death of legendary Star Wars actress Carie Fisher. The post read “RIP Carrie Fisher, you’ll always have the biggest buns in the galaxy.” The tweet also included a pic of a line drawing of the actress made from cinnamon powder along with a Cinnabon roll for her hair.
The Tweeter community didn’t take lightly to the fact that the company showcased its product and attempted to capitalize on the death of a beloved actress.
The learning from this is simple, don’t try to sell your product or service, piggybacking on a sad occasion.
Dolce and Gabbana’s CofounderCalls Customers Fat
Back in 2017, the company’s cofounder Stefano Gabbana went on a social media rampage attacking people with rude responses. This happened after a photo of a shoe was criticised for displaying a text that read “I’M Thin & Gorgeous.” People started to criticise the photo for promoting an unrealistic body type and insulting women who didn’t fit into the bracket of “slim.”
Stefano Gabbana responded by going on a comments war with women, calling them “fat”, “full of cholesterol”, and “stupid.” Needless to say, this didn’t help the brand.
Here’s the key takeaway. If you cannot tolerate criticism, social media marketing is not for you. When things are not going your way it’s best to leave a polite response and allow things fizzle out instead of adding fuel to the fire by responding aggressively.
Vacation Tweet by Jeff Bezos that Received Tremendous Backlash
Right when Amazon was under public scrutiny for poor work conditions, Jeff Bezos decided to let the world know that he was going sledding in Norway. The tweet was so ill-timed that even celebrities like Sarah Silverman responded to the tweet.
There is nothing wrong with going on vacations and sharing photos on social media, but the timing was unfortunate.
The key learning, never share happy personal photos when the company or its workers are in turmoil.
Miele’s Sexist Woman’s Day Post
Back in the day (1950s), household appliances, cleaning products, and cooking items were marketed to housewives. Things have changed now and this dated marketing tactic is now considered sexist and insulting to women.
This is why when Miele decided to wish happy women’s day with a photo of four women sitting on a washing machine and dishwasher, it was not well received. The company had no choice but to delete the post a few hours later.
Key learning from this fiasco is, never try to define gender roles to push your products.
Benetton’s Attempted Cute Humor Fell Flat
In an attempt to sell fashion wear for boys, Benetton thought it was a good idea to post an image of three young boys wearing Benetton clothes with the caption, “Sorry ladies, Girls not allowed!” The Instagram community spared no time in pointing out the blatant sexism and showered the post with negative comments.
While there is no denying that Benetton attempted to be funny, the original message was lost in the confusion and the backlash.
Make sure your jokes are not at the expense of someone else, in this case, every woman on Earth!
Pepsi Ronaldo Voodoo Doll
Pepsi got themselves into trouble when their Swedish marketing division posted pics of Christiano Ronaldo dolls in various life threatening and uncomfortable poses. While the post probably got a few laughs in Sweden, it enraged people in Portugal and people started to create hate groups against Pepsi.
Pepsi deleted the post and apologized for what they did.
The key learning, you should never mess with CR7.