Lessons Learned from Mistakes Made

When digital communication goes wrong, it can have serious consequences for a company, from damaging its reputation to causing financial loss. As businesses increasingly turn to digital communication to connect with their audiences, it’s important to be aware of the potential risks that come with this powerful tool. Taking a look at real-life examples of digital communication gone wrong can provide current and future communication professionals lessons from these cases to help businesses avoid similar mistakes.

Be Aware of the Culture

One example of digital communication gone wrong is Pepsi’s Kendall Jenner ad. In 2017, Pepsi released an ad featuring Kendall Jenner joining a protest and seemingly solving a conflict by offering a police officer a can of Pepsi. However, the ad was widely criticized for trivializing serious social issues and cultural appropriation. The lesson here is that businesses need to be aware of the social and cultural contexts in which they operate and avoid using sensitive issues to promote their products. 

Monitor Your Channels

Another example of digital communication gone wrong is McDonald’s #McDStories campaign. In 2012, McDonald’s launched the campaign, asking people to share their positive experiences with the brand using the hashtag. However, the hashtag was quickly took over into a bashtag with people sharing negative experiences and criticism of McDonald’s. This shows the potential for negative feedback and the need for businesses to carefully monitor their social media channels.

Respond Quickly

In 2017, United Airlines faced widespread criticism after forcibly removing a passenger from an overbooked flight. The incident was captured on video and shared widely on social media, leading to a PR disaster. This underscores the importance of having clear policies in place for managing crises and responding to negative feedback in a timely and appropriate manner. 

Get Feedback Before a Launch

Dove’s 2017 ad that appeared to show a black woman turning into a white woman after using Dove soap also received criticism for promoting racist stereotypes. This is a reminder that businesses need to be aware of the potential for unintentional messaging and carefully consider the potential interpretations of their content.

Manage Your Accounts

The final example of digital communication gone wrong is in 2012, a KitchenAid employee tweeted an offensive political joke about Barack Obama from the company’s official account during a presidential debate. While this tweet was widely criticized, KitchenAid successfully managed this social media crisis with a quick public apology from the company. This is an example of the importance of carefully managing access to social media accounts and making sure that employees are fully aware of the potential consequences of their actions.

Simple Steps

In conclusion, these digital communication case studies show the potential risks of getting digital communication wrong. Businesses need to be aware of the potential for negative feedback, carefully consider the social and cultural contexts in which they operate, have clear crisis management policies in place, be aware of the potential for unintentional messaging, and carefully manage access to their social media accounts. By taking these simple steps, businesses can avoid the mistakes of these digital communication case studies and build stronger connections with their audiences.

Mitigating a Social Media Crisis

Social media crisis management is a critical aspect of PR and communications, and it requires a sincere and quick approach before things get out of hand. Social media has transformed the way we communicate, connecting people from all corners of the world. It’s also transformed the way businesses operate, providing a platform to engage with customers and promote products and services. However, with great power comes great responsibility, and businesses must be prepared to handle the potential risks of social media. As PR and communications professionals, it’s our duty to ensure that businesses are equipped to manage social media crises. These crises can arise at any time, and they can have a significant impact on a company’s reputation and bottom line.

Best Practices

To effectively manage social media crises, PR professionals must be proactive, vigilant, and authentic. This means being alert to potential risks, monitoring social media channels regularly, responding promptly to issues, and communicating honestly and transparently with all stakeholders. One of the most important aspects of social media crisis management is identifying potential crises before they escalate. This requires staying on top of industry trends and potential issues that may arise. By doing so, PR professionals can take preventive action to address issues before they become full-blown crises.

Another critical element of social media crisis management is having a well-defined crisis management plan in place. This should include a crisis communication protocol, key stakeholders, and a process for responding to crises. By having a designated crisis management team and a clear plan, businesses can reduce damage in the event of a crisis. When a social media crisis does occur, it’s important to respond promptly and authentically. This means fully acknowledging the issue, taking responsibility for any mistakes, and providing regular updates on the situation. Being transparent and communicating openly can help to restore trust with stakeholders.

Learning from Mistakes

Finally, it’s important to learn from each crisis experience and update crisis management plans accordingly. Taking a look at past case studies can teach you what to do and what not to do in an event of a crisis. By taking a reflective approach, businesses can identify areas for improvement and better prepare for future crises. Social media crisis management is a critical aspect of PR and communications, and it requires a dynamic, transparent, and genuine approach. By staying attentive, having a well-defined plan in place, and communicating openly, businesses can minimize the impact of social media crises and emerge stronger in the long run.

With Digital Communication Speakers to Keep an Eye on

Staying ahead of future digital trends can be a challenge, which is why keeping a close eye on several digital communication experts can be transformative. Following several of these pioneers in the industry can keep you ahead of the rest of your competition, and most importantly keep your content and conversations interesting. 

Understanding Human Connections

Before we can predict future digital trends, it is critical to first understand human connections that move us forward. Just because our world has gone digital does not mean we can forget the power of truly understanding human relations and how to create personal connections with our audiences. Bryan Kramer, the CEO of PureMatter is an expert in social media but he is also adept in understanding human-to-human connections. Check out his book, There is No B2B or B2C: It’s Human to Human #H2H, to better understand the many facets of why and how communication today needs to be adjusted to keep up with our ever-evolving and fast-moving social and digital world.

Predicting the Future

Rohit Bhargava, the CEO of Influential Marketing Group and creator of Non-Obvious is an expert that’s not only easy to connect with but someone who can also teach you how to accurately predict future digital trends. His book Non Obvious Megatrends: How to See What Others Miss and Predict the Future answers how you can predict the trends that will change your business. Or if you’re short on time but still want the answers on trends that can change your future check out his SXSW 2019 lecture “7 Non-Obvious Trends Changing The Future.”

Understanding Strategies

Once you have the future digital trends down, now you can start implementing your digital strategies. If you want to better understand well-tested and current social media strategies for excellence, look to Corey Perlman. There is never a dull moment with Corey’s interactive speeches. His latest book, Social Media Overload takes a deep dive into how to find out where your customers and prospects are spending time online, ways to outperform your competition on Google, common website mistakes, and much more.

The Power of Unleashing Digital Communication

Digital communication can help you unlock new audiences that you never thought existed. Social media consists of blogs, microblogs, social networking, social news, online communities, podcasts, video sharing, messaging, and streaming videos. PR practitioners may think a social media strategy is straightforward and the same for every channel. However, each social media channel was not created the same. You can no longer get away with copying and pasting the same copy of your Facebook post to your Instagram post.

Why can’t I Copy n’ Paste?

There are two completely different audiences and social media come in all shapes and sizes. Once you match the right channel to your certain audience, you are golden. For instance, if you are trying to reach an audience of 65 and up it may be useful to know that 50% are on Facebook, while only 13% are on Instagram. If you are trying to reach ages 18 to 29 it may be a better use of your time and money to use Instagram over LinkedIn given 71% are on Instagram and just 30% are on LinkedIn. Check out this Pew Research article and this social media demographic blog to learn more.

How do I monitor?

Meltwater, Sprout Social, Agorapulse, and Rival IQ are essential tools to help you monitor digital communication feedback for your company. What should I look out for? In general, ignore the lovers and haters because overcoming hate and love can be a fruitless activity. The ones in the middle are what you should pay attention to. In addition, try not to let your clients see the lovers and the haters. Discover the serial detractors and take action. Look for an issue that is heightening and take quick action before it turns into a paracrisis or a crisis. Remember to look out for legitimate problems, complaints, questions, and anything out of the ordinary. All of these simple monitoring strategies can ultimately save your brand. 

At the Bare Minimum

The minimum your company should be doing to keep digital communication king is having a website that provides quick information, think of it as a reference place. Write engaging blogs that provide conversations. Promote these blogs through all of your social channels. Provide feedback through comments, replies, DMs, shares, and emails. Customers are looking for a response when they go to your social media platforms. Lastly, include special channels such as podcasts and videos. 

Lastly, if you remember that digital communication is king, it can transform your brand by unleashing powerful new audiences.