Just as quickly as social media can help your business, it can hurt it. Even worse, a social media blunder can cost you your job. Here are lessons learned from real-life examples of people who lost their jobs, lost clients or tarnished their business reputation. You’ll learn what not to do – and what to do – to ensure you’re using social media to effectively promote your business.

1. Social Media Gone Wrong:
What NOT To Do Online
Prepared by:
Chad Wiebesick
Director of social media & interactive marketing, Pure Michigan
Twitter: @Wiebesick
March 7, 2016

2. Know your audience.

3. What Single Post Caused People To
Unlike the Pure Michigan Facebook
Page?

4. What Should We Do?

5. Let Your Advocates Support You

6. Some people get fired even before
they begin their job.

8. Using emoji’s can get you fired

9. What does this tweet mean?

10. He’s probably the first person fired for
poor emoji use.

11. Lesson learned: In the heat of a
moment, take time to think how
others might view your tweet.

12. Check your work before you hit ‘send’.

14. People react with mocking responses…

15. ...and people react with harsh criticism
Shortly, Total Beauty apologizes

16. Acknowledge the mistake

17. Don’t tweet and drive.

19. Don’t automate your social media feeds.

20. The New England Patriots wanted
to thank their fans for reaching
one million Twitter followers with
an automated tweet that showed
each fan's Twitter handle on a
digital Patriots jersey if they
retweeted this message
celebrating reaching one million.

21. Patroit’s automated Twitter reply
sends out racial slur.

22. And here’s the subsequent apology.

23. Even smart, successful people can make
big mistakes. And on social media, those
mistakes aren’t easy to fix.

24. She insults an entire
continent of 50+ countries,
people with AIDS, African-
Americans, white people, the
medical community, the
international travel business,
people with an actual sense
of humor, and more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v

25. #HasJustineLandedYet trends worldwide

26. Brands, web celebrities join global
mockery of Justine’s pro-AIDS tweet

27. She lands…and gets fired.

28. She’s not a bad person, just bad at
Twitter.
“I lost my job, my reputation and I’m not able to
date anymore.”

29. Here’s another reason to not focus on
number of fans.

30. New York State Has The Largest Number of Facebook
Fans
• The most popular age group are 13-17 year old teenagers.
• Most of their fans live in New York City.

31. State of Florida Has Far Fewer Fans, But More Engaged
• Average age of fans are 35-54, a demographic more likely to have
budget to travel.
• Most fans live out-of-state, a more lucrative traveler.

32. Another reason to not focus on fans

33. US Airways sends NSFW graphic tweet

35. US Airways finally removes the tweet
after nearly one hour and apologizes.

36. Be timely and topical, but smart.

37. Three Words: Building Brand Awareness

38. “Here’s how by reacting quickly to
a rather obscure tweet, we
generated $17 million in PR buzz.”

39. Dec 6, 11:49 am

40. TravelWisconsin.com

41. Dec 6, 2:45 pm

42. Dec 6, 7:17 pm

43. What, If Anything, Do We Do?
• 1 tweet
• 11 retweets
• 1 story in Kalamazoo Gazette

44. Dec 7, 11:45 am
WhoIsTheRealMittenState.com

47. Dec 7, 4:43 pm
Statewide News

48. Dec 7, 7:23 pm
Wisconsin Releases Another Mitten
Travel Wisconsin put up a new version of the mitten in the green and gold of the Green Bay Packers,
boasting the football team's unbeaten record and ribbing their rivals, the 7-5 Detroit Lions.

49. “Is Michigan or Wisconsin the Mitten State?”
Google AdWords

50. Dec 7, 10:20 pm
National News

52. Dec 13

53. The Mitten Drive Prompted
More Conversations

54. Dec 14, 2:20 International News
Results:
•Over 300 news stories from state,
national and international radio,
newspaper and TV
•396 million media impressions
•$17.7 million in earned media
value

55. This tweet went over about as well as
you'd expect.

56. Really?! Kenneth Cole jokes about tragic
international event to sell shoes again

57. And another example

58. Epicurious sends
individual apologies,
though half-hearted
copy-and-pasting is
disingenuous.

59. Lesson Learned: Don’t make light of
serious situations. If you do, apologize
authentically, not as lip service.

60. Here’s what happens when social
media managers inadvertently post to
the wrong account

61. Maybe the admin is fed up after a bad
day and decides to take it out on the
brand’s soapbox.

62. Or maybe it’s an honest mistake, and
they think they’re signed into their
personal account

63. Good-humored tweet acknowledges
the mistake

64. Sometimes, the way it’s handled can
redeem (or further condemn) your brand

65. Lesson Learned: Be careful who you
put in charge, and put policies in place
as checks and balances

66. Sometimes an account gets hijacked.

67. University of Michigan

68. Alert audiences on your other channels…
and change your passwords

69. Access is restored! (Or so they thought)

70. Burger King gets hacked and
masquerades as McDonalds

71. The next day, hackers break into Jeep’s
Twitter account

72. But, sometimes brands fake being
hacked

73. Lesson learned: Create a ‘Social Media
Hacking Policy’
Strong password security is not enough. Use two-step authentication.

74. Research trending hashtags before
you use them.

77. …Quickly Apologized.

78. Lesson Learned: Just because it’s
trending doesn’t mean it’s something
that you could or should capitalize on

79. Evaluate how new hashtags might be
construed.

80. #SusanAlbumParty

81. #susAnalBumParty

82. Closing Thoughts
If you mess up, own it, say you’re sorry and then
move on.
Don’t become a case study in my presentation!

83. • Chad Wiebesick
• wiebesickc@michigan.org
• Twitter: @wiebesick
• Facebook.com/cwiebesick
• Linkedin.com/in/wiebesick
• (517) 335-1083