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Anna Luo, JivoxĪlienating some part of your workforce isn’t often thought of because it doesn’t directly affect your customer base, but it can cause negativity to infiltrate your social media. Brands can prioritize empathy and authenticity by interacting with customers on a personal level through a one-to-one connection with customers, using data to gauge their intent at a specific moment in time. People don’t want to follow a bot they want meaningful content and interaction. But if someone has a viable complaint, brands have the opportunity to show that they’re listening and, more importantly, that they care by responding. This doesn’t mean leaving every inappropriate meme or a comment that is profane or defamatory in nature posted. Ignoring all negative comments-or worse, deleting all negative comments-is one mistake brands should avoid on social media. Ignoring Or Deleting All Negative Comments Anne Marie Malecha, Dezenhall Resources, Ltd.ġ2. If your company is under fire-publicly or behind the scenes-shut down or, at the very least, adjust your regular social posts to ensure you’re not adding fuel to your own fire. Crisis management is a containment discipline social media is an exercise in the exact opposite. Not adjusting your strategy and content calendar in times of crisis is a mistake. Without that alignment, you risk making tone-deaf commentary that can damage your brand and offend your customers. If there is a social conversation erupting that credibly aligns with your brand, culture and customers, then participating can make a lot of sense. Trying to join a conversation that doesn’t align authentically with your brand is a social media faux pas. Joining Conversations That Don’t Align With Your Brand The best method of avoidance is to have those who reflect and belong to these communities in the room to inform these decisions. Audiences now demand this level of cultural awareness. The appropriation of ethnic cultural language, sayings or attire to target a specific audience and the utilization of culturally insensitive terminology (“powwow” or “open the kimono,” for example) in social copy or campaigns are mistakes. Otherwise, you may end up sounding tone-deaf and face a real reputation crisis. Major news of the day needs to be considered before posting anything. The biggest faux pas companies can make on social media is not paying attention to the world around them and posting in a vacuum. James Polinori, Geneva Financial Home Loans Showcasing the human side of your company with authentic content is a great way to connect with your audience. Change up the content, topic and timing of posts occasionally to promote engagement and prevent stagnation. Not Testing Different Strategies On Different PlatformsĮach site has its own community and culture that may make certain strategies ineffective. While there’s plenty of room for experimentation on social media, not understanding whether or not a viral hashtag, a meme or a new platform is suitable for the brand’s audience is a surefire way to make a company look negligent. One of the biggest media faux pas a company can make on its social media accounts is jumping on the latest trends without first conducting the appropriate research. Jumping On Trends Without Conducting Research Parna Sarkar-Basu, Brand and Buzz Marketing, LLC.Ħ. Talk to the executives or the company lawyer to make sure the numbers are accurate and vetted by the right teams before sharing on social media. Such “fake news” will come back to haunt you when the company has to share data with investors, the Securities and Exchange Commission or an acquiring company. Do I qualify?ĭon’t post inflated numbers on social media, whether it’s the number of customers or your annual revenue.
#Making a faux pas full#
This year’s MTV Video Music Awards show was full of fashion surprises and tragic faux pas.Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Hen I ordered the chocolate pithivier for dessert our waitress corrected my awful pronunciation with such grace that I barely noticed my faux pas. These faux pas are not easily dismissed in a city that has long viewed itself as culturally superior to the rest of China. Kevin Seraphin of the Wizards committed the unpardonable fashion faux pas of wearing his shorts backward Monday night against the Knicks in Madison Square Garden. ExamplesĪmong phone addicts, sporting an out-of-date device is a serious faux pas. Those are the French pronunciations, anyway.įaux pas has been in English a long time, so there’s no need to italicize it in normal use. The plural form is spelled the same, but while the singular faux pas is pronounced foh-PAH, the plural faux pas is pronounced foh-PAHZ. The French loan phrase faux pas (literally false step) is a noun meaning a social blunder or indiscretion.
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