5 social media blunders and how to avoid them

Being concerned, alert, and watchful about what you do on your social media channels is better than posting blindly and not having a “method to your madness.”

Time and again, brand representatives have made mistakes, and I will tell you: Blunders will happen to most of us. Whether it’s minor, like a mistaken tweet, or a larger gaffe, like a contest gone wrong, we all make mistakes.

Here are some “snafus” that reps for major brands have made (a.k.a., they’re human, too); you can learn from them and avoid making the same missteps.

1. Errant tweet!

Who hasn’t seen the Red Cross mis-tweet? An employee at the organization mistakenly sent this through the official Red Cross account, believing it was his own feed.

It went viral, but Red Cross handled it with grace. The organization assured loyal donors that staffers were indeed “sober,” but the cool thing was that the tweets and hashtags used (which continued via Dogfish beer) raised even more donations. Who knew that showing a little human side could increase awareness and create more ROI?