We’ve spent hours reading stories of how social media was used out of context and caused brands a lot of pain, followers and money.
The moral of the story – Anyone (brands big and small) can make a mistake.
Let’s learn from their mistakes, shall we?
There are endless examples of brands who’s attempts to take advantage of holidays ended badly, but today we’re going to focus on this story of a Minnesota store.
This Minnesota store decided that the perfect way to commemorate Martin Luther King Day on it’s Facebook page by offering a special deal.
Not a big deal… Until you see the promotion.
“Annual MLK Day BLACK SALE! He showed us that the struggle and lookin’ super fly can go hand in hand. We salute him with 25% off everything black, Monday, January 20th. Much more our style than a Columbus Day sale, no?”
“Annual MLK Day BLACK SALE! He showed us that the struggle and lookin’ super fly can go hand in hand. We salute him with 25% off everything black, Monday, January 20th. Much more our style than a Columbus Day sale, no?”This issue is more of a marketing fail than a social media fail… But once it’s on Facebook, it’s a social media issue.
In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr and the top comment on the post…
“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
What can we learn from this?
ALWAYS air on the side of caution. If your gut says no, then don’t do it.
Just this week, we found something we thought was hilarious and wanted to share it on a client’s page. But we weren’t sure if it was appropriate as it might have offended one of their partners.
So we asked, they did some looking into it and we decided it was totally fine! But had we not asked, it might not have been taken as well.
Read our other Case Studies here.
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