Mistakes do happen in social media. Regardless how hard you try to avoid them, they-just-happen and it could be extremely troubling to say the least. A wrong move in social media could easily disrupt the entire social media process, not to mention the ability to create a lot of unwanted marketing effects.
Today’s article is all about social media mistakes and what actions do you take when you face with such situation. Yes, the steps you need to take to resolve those social media mistakes (and put out the ‘flames’).
Are you ready to learn how to escape these near death situations in social media?
Social Media Mistakes Happen, But You Can Resolve Them
1. Admit to the mistakes done
Forget about running around the bush. When mistakes happen in social media, man-up to admit the mistake.
The last thing your followers want is a person or business who doesn’t admit to the mistakes done.
Sure, you may feel embarrass with the mistake done but we are all human beings. This means that we are commonly prone to mistakes and such blunders. Furthermore, no one is perfect in this world.
While we must always find the best ways to avoid these mistakes, you should take responsibilities whenever the mistakes happen. Period.
2. Be apologetic and apologize (for Christ’s sake)
The first step you should ever do when you accidentally perform a social media mistake (for example, wrong posting) is to apologize.
Apologizing from your heart is always a great way to resolve a mistake on social media.
When an ‘oppsie’ moment happened, take the opportunity to resolve the issue. A few methodology would be:
- Saying “sorry” to the relevant parties
- Sending personal apology messages to people offended with the posts
Again, I would stress that there is absolutely no reason why you should deny the mistake. Yes, it could be your first ever mistake and it is done.
Do not let it fuss over you at all cost.
3. Turning the mistake into a humor
Bigger brands usually practice this methodology. Humor is a great way to ‘close the case’ and turn the unwanted situation into a lively one.
While humor is probably the best remedy in solving social media mistakes, it is extremely hard to pull off. At times, it could also backfire especially when the humor is badly created.
If you are planning to use humor, make sure you take more than just ‘a moment’ when it comes to deciding the best option to use from.
4. Is deleting or editing ‘whatever it is’ an option?
Deleting or editing the wrong information or social media mistake is a good move. For example, wrong image, broken link or even typing mistakes.
If you have the ability or option to do so -> Please. Do. It.
The mistakes done on social media are not meant to be kept there. Some of the best practices is to edit the social post and after performing the needed editing, place a little disclaimer to inform others that the post has been edited. Make no mistake with this step as it is extremely important to inform your followers of what had happen or the reason of editing.
In the case where there is no option to edit the social post, deleting it would be the best move as leaving it in the virtual world wouldn’t bring you any good either.
5. Could you take advantage of the mistakes done in social media?
I love to consider everything as an opportunity, including the case where social media mistake had been done.
When mistakes happen, there is a huge opportunity to leverage it for business.
Let’s take an ecommerce website for example. When the sales or support team accidentally issues out a wrong code or discount, it is the best interest for the company for not disputing the sales. While the customers should be informed of the mistake, they should also be informed that the company would honor the sales or discount done. In the point of a customer, this would create trust and faith for the company. In some cases, word of mouth would also lead to more sales and brand visibility for the company.
The strategies taken by the company would varies and are not limited entirely to discount and honoring of sales. The company could also provide more addon services and freebies for future purchases.
The two important takeaways from the above
The first takeaway I would like to highlight is the use of planning. You have probably heard that social media never sleeps. It is constantly live and mistakes are prone to happen.
With this, it just means that planning is more important than ever! The right planning would allow you to construct better social media planning and this could actually lead to a reduction of social mistakes. Planning may be a lengthy one but if proper ones are done, businesses could reduce the number of mistakes in large quantities.
The second takeaway would be learning from mistakes. This is exceptionally important for businesses who have a group of social media marketers. There are lessons to be learn in every mistake done and in order to grow, steps must be taken to ensure that the same mistake does not occur in the future (or find ways to reduce the chance of happening).
Guidelines could be setup to ensure that everyone is on the same track and have a mutual understanding of their tasks. Also, team members must be guided especially when it comes to explaining the consequences the company would face when mistakes are done.
In a long run, you would be able to create a better and more organized social media team.
Now, it is your turn!
I am tempted to hear what you have to say about social media mistakes. I am sure you have come across several mistakes and what did you do to resolve the matter?
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See also: 7 Social Media Tips to Engage Your Target Audience
