It has become common knowledge that social media has great influence on many things in life. People use social media not only to express themselves and keep in touch with their friends or family, but also for business and brand promotion. Why is social media very influential, especially for business? Well, the simple answer would be that almost the majority of the human population in the world use it, and the best way to promote a business brand would be to promote it in a place where most people are in it, right? In this era where technology grows stronger than ever, there are many new inventions that can also serve as boosters for social media. This can lead to more and more people possibly starting to use social media as well. With so many people using social media, it has become crystal clear to business owners to keep conveying and expressing their messages to their target audience through social media to make them stay.

That being said, being a business owner requires strong characteristics that can make the business unique while keeping up with the trends at the same time. Yes, that’s true, as unique as we are, we still have to keep up with the trends in order to avoid being old-fashioned and left behind. However, there are just trends that might not work on some businesses, and there are also things that won’t mesh no matter how unique we are trying to be, so try to avoid them! Are you a business owner who is just thinking about wanting to start using social media for your business? If yes, then this article will help you get some insights on bad social media practices that you should avoid. Below we provide you with those bad practices. Keep reading to find out!

Wrong trending topics

When managing social media for business, some marketers try to reach as much target audience as they can by using trending topics or hashtags. While it might be a smooth idea, it won’t be, if you are using the wrong trending topics or hasthtags for your marketing strategy, like below:

The hashtag #WhyIStayed was intended for mistreated people and some of them were really brave to share their story through that hashtag. However, this pizza brand has seemingly used this trending hashtag for their social media marketing strategy, which was considered as insensitive and rude. The brand soon apologised for that.

Misleading messages

Having a brand means that you have a role to encourage and inspire people to be better. Therefore, you are expected to use the right word selection to deliver great messages that can not only attract people but also inspire them. Making some slip-ups is okay sometimes, but this?

This is the fatal mistake any brand could make, especially the big one with many followers already. Telling hundred thousands or millions of people to spike someone’s drink, let alone their best friend’s, when they are not looking is the same as encouraging rape.

Poorly timed posts

Another example of bad social media practices is when you share a post at the wrong time, which can not only be considered as insensitive and cruel, but it can also ruin your brand’s reputation, like these examples:

Amazon’s unique “cereal killer” bowl tweet would have been a different story if it had been posted before the Pulse nightclub shootings happened. However, the company tweeted this even within 24 hours after the tragedy.

Another mistiming tweet example came from American Rifle tweeting this, hours after the horrific shooting at a Colorado movie theatre which caused 12 people to die.

Purposely using tragedy for marketing

Really, people? Greedy so much, aren’t we? Trending hashtags may be used for increasing brand awareness, since most of the people that might be following those trending hashtags might find your brand along with the hashtag. However, using trending hashtags that cover tragedy for your marketing strategy? That mistake is beyond fatal and lacking empathy at all. Unfortunately, a big brand like Kenneth Cole used a disaster to market their business too. The fashion designer made light of a serious situation like the protests in Egypt by tweeting this:

Using (recent) tragedy as an opportunity

No business should use tragedy as an opportunity to market their business. No one should ever do that. Yet, K-Mart did that. At first sight, nothing was wrong with their tweet offering condolences to the victims of one of the worst school shootings in American history, which caused 26 people to die, including many children.

Until they added #Fab15Toys as one of the hashtags. Adding #Fab15Toys (their marketing campaign at the same time) in that tweet was the very definition of failure in delivering the message of condolences.

Those are some of the bad social media marketing practices you can learn from. Managing social media for business may be tough, but it can be fun if you can follow the right flow. Remember, if you want to offer condolences on your business’ social media account, do it because you are really feeling empathy towards the victims, not because you want to get more followers. Do things on social media because it is the right thing to do, not because you want something in return. With that mindset in your mind, you can manage the effective social media marketing strategy that can lead your company to success.