How to avoid social media nightmares

The public—that is, those people who don’t interact with your brands in the social space—will probably never know about those great positive conversations you have with fans and followers on your pages.

However, a social media nightmare can go from mild embarrassment to full humiliation in a matter of hours. That’s when the nightmare becomes a public relations matter.

I can only assume that PR departments detest nothing more than cleaning up after the wrongdoings of its social media team.

So here are a few tips for avoiding social media nightmares involving your company:

Always be aware of your company’s ad campaigns, including when and where they’re running.

Let’s say a news show is airing an interview on one of its programs. Now, if the subject of that news interview is, shall we say, unsavory, it’s not uncommon for a person to make the leap that your organization supports that unsavory character.

I’ve seen it happen. A brand my company works with aired a commercial during an interview with someone who had been in the news for negative reasons. Page managers woke up to a barrage of how-could-you-support-that-monster posts.