With the era of social media upon us, it seems that every other day a new company or public figure is apologizing about something that was posted on one of their social media pages. Sometimes these posts are honest mistakes and other times the person posting just doesn’t think it through before they send a message out to the world. Here are a few prime examples of the ways social media has put both companies and individuals in hot water:
1. Netflix: Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings, posted on his personal Facebook page that “monthly viewing exceeded one billion hours for the first time ever” which caused a 20% increase in Netflix’s stock price. The SEC filed a lawsuit against both Hastings and Netflix for violating disclosure regulations due to the fact that there was no formal press release about this one billion hours and stockholders were not properly informed. In the end Netflix won their case against the SEC, however in the process they spent countless hours and incurred many unnecessary legal fees because of a single Facebook post.
2. Johnny Manziel: In 2013, 20-year-old Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel caused an uproar of media attention when he posted a photo on his Twitter account partying at a 21+ club in Dallas with a bottle of Dom Perignon in his hand. Deemed Johnny Football, he was the face of college football and choosing to broadcast to his 250,000 twitter followers that he was underage drinking didn’t sit well with the public. Manziel is just one of the countless athletes that have experienced self-inflicted social media backlash by simply not thinking before posting on social media.
3. Bayer: Bayer UK sent out two product-related tweets that included headlines from recent press releases. The tweets were promoting prescription-only medications and were deemed as a regulatory violation considering the tweets were accessible by the public. The press releases had been signed-off internally, but the tweets had not. The final ruling of the case noted that Bayer UK’s use of social media to communicate with the public was legitimate but it was not in accordance with industry regulations.
The human element of social media is what makes the medium so valuable. Great company news can be shared in an instant, marketing can be more personal, and the veil of the uptight corporate personality can be pierced, however social media is not immune from human error. Mistakes are bound to happen but these mistakes don’t have to be catastrophic, much less damaging. Having a social media monitoring solution in place that prevents these mistakes, allows for a remediation work-flow, and archives all activity will significantly lessen and/or prevent the damage. Whether we are talking about large Fortune 500 companies, sports franchises, or any other organization, it is not a bad idea to have some sort of social media monitoring solution in place. If a social media mishap occurs and a monitoring solution is able to remove it from the network before it is exposed to the world, a brand’s reputation and valued customer relationships will remain intact.
For more information, contact us to speak with one of our social media compliance experts.