“Say it with diamonds.
Say it with mink.
But never, ever say it with ink.”
That’s a pre-Internet saying that resonates today even more. But at least ink could be burned, a note could be thrown away, it could even be swallowed and all evidence of the sentiment would disappear.
Not true in today’s world.
A bad post lives on in infamy and there’s nothing you can do to get rid of it. Even after you delete it from your account, people can get it in their streams. So what 5 things should you be careful about posting on your business account?
- A direct slam on your competitors. At best this gives them fuel. At worst you could have a liable suit or angry customers who don’t think you’re playing fairly.
- A comment about gender or race. Unless you’re posting an empowering statistic (and you better make sure that’s what it is and there’s no flip side) stay away from posts about gender or race, just ask Vera Bradley. That company got lambasted for their campaign #ItsGoodToBeAGirl for trivializing the “female experience.”
- Comments about getting drunk or being indisposed on the weekends. Even alcohol brands don’t advocate over abusing their products.
- Posting funny material when a national tragedy has just occurred. We all schedule our social media posts for greater efficiency but when a national or local tragedy occurs, it’s essential that you turn off your auto-posting. if you leave it on, you will be sending out light airy posts when people are in crisis and you will look uninformed and uncaring.
- Making light of news events. Go ahead and use the humor surrounding a wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl but anything more serious than that should be avoided. Kenneth Cole used riots in Cairo to talk about their spring line in a light-hearted way. But their joke wasn’t very funny to many and they received a lot of flack for it.
What would you add to this list?
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