When a celebrity dies and you have a great idea for tweet with a meme, should you send it out right away? Probably not… At least that’s the lesson that Cinnabon learned when they tweeted out the image at right following the announcement of Carrie Fisher’s death. (Star Wars fans and satirists have long noted that Princess Leia’s hairdo resembled a pair of rolls.) When the inevitable criticism followed, Cinnabon quickly deleted the tweet and apologized.
PR Daily came out with a good post earlier this week addressing this very question with some pretty good answers. Follow the link for the whole post, but here’s their basic advice:
- Timing is everything. Take the time to think it through before posting something.
- Make sure your team has proper training. Your social media people need to understand PR and PR ethics.
- Heed lessons from other brand managers’ missteps. Usually you won’t be the first person to have made the same mistake.
- Even small errors can be blown out of proportion online. The internet is an unforgiving place. Especially when fan boys and girls are involved.