Whatever one puts in the social media is subject to criticisms. As the internet never sleeps, haters, skeptics and of course the grammar Nazis are also always there. In terms of marketing through social media, it pays to be careful with what you post so as not to fail your campaign.
Here's a list of some of the social media marketing strategies that were not successful and what marketers can learn from them:
Study Your Ad's Target Market
The famous soft drink brand, Coca-Cola, experienced Russian outrage as they posted an animated view of the country. Little did the company knew that what they did was a trigger to a geopolitical issue by including Crimea, Ukraine's region, which was annexed during the WWII, as reported by The Guardian. Social media marketers should know their target market well and ensure that their information is updated. This was missed by the famous soft drink brand.
Get Your Information Straight
DC published a comic saying that it was translated from "Pakistanian". Comic readers immediately pointed out DC's mistake by saying the language was actually Urdu, and Pakistanian is a language that actually doesn't exist. Readers said DC should have made a quick Google search before publishing, though.
Here's why @Marvel is winning over @DCComics - the latter thinks we speak Pakistanian. h/t @takhalus pic.twitter.com/xzvx8VccS1 — Khaver Siddiqi (@thekarachikid) January 5, 2016
Avoid Differentiation Crisis
Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey were confused by Total Beauty in a tweet. The tweet was captioned as "We had no idea @Oprah was #tatted, and we love it. #Oscars." Moreover, marketers should set their facts straight and learn to differentiate between people and products as well. Social media marketers should not just keep posting and should digest the feedback of clients that are interested in your business.
Take The Outcome In Account
Microsoft decided to create an AI bot and named it "Tay." But after just 24 hours, it was shut down. Tay's function was to learn from conversations in the Twitter community. But instead it was taught unappropriate things. Screenshots of Tay's post were also included in the tweet.
"Tay" went from "humans are super cool" to full nazi in <24 hrs and I'm not at all concerned about the future of AI pic.twitter.com/xuGi1u9S1A
— gerry (@geraldmellor) March 24, 2016
Lesson learned is to visualize and idealize what your product or business will influence or affect in the future.
Jobs and Hire also have articles regarding "Branding Lessons Straight from Starbucks."
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