Social media can be a great tool for personal and business use, however if managed incorrectly, this could have a major negative effect.
A couple of examples of poorly managed social media presences is the worst scheduled tweet timing ever and my personal favorite of the worst use of social media, Boners BBQ.
The worst scheduled tweet ever is a great example of the risks involved with scheduling and not fully monitoring your tweets. What happened was earlier this year there was a RadioHead concert that was schedule in Toronto, but tragedy struck. Some of the staging equipment collapsed before the show, where one person died and many were injured. Clearly a terrible incident, however, Livenation (the promoter for the event) also tweeted that the show was cancelled, to make people aware not to head to the show.
Oooops! The backlash was terrible. All this confirms is the risk involved in social media.
Now on to my favorite story, Boners BBQ!
The break down of the story:
1. A lady and her family go to the BBQ restaurant after getting a $10 coupon
2. They eat, leave, and she writes a review on Yelp, listing things she liked and disliked with reasons
3. After seeing the review and being told she did not tip, the owner takes action on his Facebook page
4. Insanity ensues
It is a lot to cover but the owner blasts the lady for the world to see. Including posting a picture, with poor and foul language attached. The internet grabs hold and everything spirals out of control. The trolls start first supporting the owner, before common reasoning steps in to tear the owner a new one. After even the local media steps in to get a story, the owner attempts an apology which is a sad attempt. All of this over the fact that a lady wrote a negative, but honest, and well written review stating what her family did and did not like.
This made me think about Risk Management on Social Media websites.
Some areas of concern, which both of these examples accomplished on the first point, are:
- Damage to brand reputation
- Releasing confidential information
- Legal, regulatory, and compliance violations
- Identity theft or hijacking
A key step in minimizing the risk involved with social media is to include a broad group of participants which include representatives from marketing, human resources, legal, IT, communications, and security.