Businesses and PR agencies alike should consider postponing, adapting or completely changing social media updates during major breaking news, or risk losing followers, says Punch Communications.
Everyday, light-hearted posts can make for an entertaining read while also serving their primary purpose of encouraging engagement with the audience. However, with major news hitting the headlines, such as the Norway massacre, UK riots and Japanese earth quake and tsunami, such posts could be interpreted as unsympathetic, untimely and even self-absorbent, and could easily result in a loss of fans and followers.
Businesses, and certainly many of the larger conglomerates, already have difficulty portraying to the outside world that they aren’t just an automated corporate machine and actually have a brand personality. An irrelevant or ‘funny’ post during times of national or global distress will just add to the task of diminishing this stereotype and could damage the business’ reputation.
Ben Leuty, account manager at tech PR agency, Punch Communications, commented: “I have no doubt that businesses won’t purposefully post unsympathetic updates, but it’s certainly something that can happen to users of automated post technology, such as Tweetdeck, so they need to be wary of pre-written and timed content.
“Additionally, despite content calendars being part of social media best practice, businesses, PR and SEO agencies alike shouldn’t stick to them categorically word for word, rather amending them accordingly or even changing them to be about the news.”
Showing apathy towards a disaster situation can reflect very well on a company by showing its human side. Such a post can change people’s views and opinions as well as serve to increase social media friends, fans and followers.
Punch Communications is an agency which offers an integrated approach to PR by incorporating social media, search engine optimisation and traditional PR, either as stand-alone or united elements. For more information, please visit www.punchcomms.com or call 01858 411 600.
