It’s time for social to grow up

For all its apparent financial maturity, social media remains an utterly unique space within marketing, in which spontaneity and a genuine connection to an audience is valued above all else. That rare, natural quality exists because marketers hold an unparalleled amount of freedom within the medium.

But born from that room to operate increasingly comes misguided moments that negatively affect brands on a global scale. Unless the industry as a whole embraces creative as well as fiscal maturity, we’ll be shacked by process and legalese, killing everything that makes social so special.

When DiGiorno Pizza used the #WhyIStayed hashtag to sell pizzas, it inadvertently leveraged a serious conversation on domestic violence for financial gain. It was a mistake that was uniquely social, as was the immediate furor the brand faced globally.

The steps the brand took to remedy the mistake were immediate and refreshing: Instead of the standard boilerplate that has been run through legal thrice over, the individual responsible for the error was human and contrite in how willing they were to be laid bare to the public.

It was this very real moment, a response to a very real mistake that was fundamental in controlling and softening the brunt of those who voiced discontent.

However, DiGiorno is just the latest example of brands’ failure to think before they leap in social — the classic combination of FOMO and riding on the back of a Twitter trend, which unto itself is one of the last bastions of organic, viral social in an increasingly pay-to-play world. Both Delta and KLM didn’t think about the consequences of their tweets in an attempt to cash in on the World Cup. As a result, they were immediately called out, shamed, and forced to apologize to the expectant world stage.

A social media crisis plan was once penned to protect a brand from unexpected outside influences; now it is of our own making.

Real-time marketing is constantly in flux and difficult to gauge in the moment; it takes skill to do, and few can do it well. Brands that stumble when attempting to become part of that wider conversation take the risk of having the resultant negatives far outweigh any gains.

These recent faux pas appear to be the new normal for brands participating in social media marketing — collateral damage for remaining at the cutting edge of the ever-changing conversation.

Instead, these gaffes should act as a wake-up call for the industry at large; one in which the value of the social media teams who are directly responsible for how a brand is perceived in the marketplace are finally weighted equally with traditional media — and staffed accordingly.

The community manager’s position on the social totem poll needs reevaluation, lest brands take the path of least resistance and embrace oversight and process to mitigate such very public blunders. The moment that happens, social media loses the social and transforms into yet another cog in the wheel of traditional marketing, wherein malaise and apathy are the rule.

By operating social at arm’s length through the community manager, a plausible deniability is attained, a fall guy assured, and a distance from the community it purports to serve achieved.

Relating to an audience and being seen as a real and natural voice means authentically reacting to and engaging with your audience and the world around you (and apologizing like DiGiorno if you need to). Establishing world-class teams that can gauge the zeitgeist as it is in flux and respond on-brand and appropriately means those apologies need never happen again.

That’s the hard part.

Andy White is Director of Social Business Strategy at Sprout Social, a leading social media management and engagement platform. Follow him @white.