Social media mistakes are inevitable; learning from them is not. We’ll highlight some social media mistakes, blunders, slip-ups, flops. We hope it’s educational as well as amusing. At the end of the year, we’ll name the Greatest Social Media Fail of 2017! Stay tuned! Note: We restrict our selection to those pertaining to organizations or businesses.
British Airways October 2016
British Airways shared with their followers a Virgin Atlantic Facebook post advertising nonstop flights to London. The post even included Virgin Atlantic’s tag line, “There’s never been a better time to visit London.” Virgin Atlantic picked up on the miscue by applauding and mildly taunting their competitor. Virgin Atlantic even sent out a thank you to British Airways, which included the #onethingweagreeon hashtag.
Lesson Learned
Every social media specialist knows the importance of timeliness but they also need to know it can lead to carelessness. Perhaps this self-inflicted error could have been avoided if British Airways had an internal system for double-checking posts before sending. Double-checking posts is a tactic that should emerge at the intersection of the Connections and Corrections elements (#5CsofSocial) of a company’s social media strategy.
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