Friday, November 8, 2013

Social Media SNAFUs: The Home Depot Edition

So, who sees something wrong with this photo?



When are corporations and their agency partners going to learn?

THD has terminated their agency and the agency terminated the individual who posted the image. HOWEVER, the lessons we can learn remain true.

An editorial process by which another individual (preferably on the client side) approves all posts through a social media management platform (like Spredfast or Sprinklr) before they go live allows for a quick reality check of the content to be published as well as allows the team to still be nimble through the automated workflows in place.

I cannot imagine that the individual who framed the image, took the photo, and posted it to Twitter fully understood the optics of the image and I'm sure they had no ill intent, however, another set of eyes would have likely prevented this social media SNAFU.

It's important to be thoughtful, but even so, the right system in place will mitigate social media disasters and allow brands to be nimble, smart and still allow their personality to shine.