‘Tis the season and we’re thinking about who’s been naughty and who’s been nice on social media this year. While no one ever sets out to create an inappropriate tweet or a controversial PR story, we can all learn from some brands’ recent experiences and re-evaluate our own strategies.
Nice
Ad Age: Lowe’s Explores Native Tools on Vine, Instagram
Lowe’s has introduced a new series of Vines called “How-To Tap Thru.” These fun, fast, helpful new videos pack a big punch. Not to be outdone, the brand also launched “HyperMade” on Instagram using Hyperlapse to capture a project from inspiration to completion. These campaigns will be fun to watch unfold!
Ragan’s PR Daily: Instagram Beats Twitter With 300 Million Active Users
Instagram is clearly on the nice list this year – recently surpassing Twitter with 300 million active users (vs. 284 million active Twitter users). Interestingly, 70 percent of Instagram users are outside the United States, but whether your brand has a US or international focus, it might be worth looking at a bigger Instagram strategy in 2015.
Naughty
USA Today: Best Buy Sorry for ‘Serial’ Tweet About 15-year-old Murder
It can be tempting to latch on to a hot trend, but Best Buy’s recent Twitter misstep reminds us that a seemingly witty social media post can be insensitive and costly to a brand’s reputation.
Washington Post: Twitter Slams Strange Fruit PR Firm, Spurring it to Drop the Name it Shared With a Very Famous Song About Lynching
Events of the past few weeks have reignited age-old racial issues and brands that may have comfortably used a name or other branding that wasn’t intended to be hurtful have found themselves in a tough position. This article explores a two-year-old firm that was called-out on Twitter and driven to change its identity as a result.
