- Successful social media campaigns can lead to great change in your business, but social media can also destroy careers and reputations.
- Outsourcing can help lighten your workload, but it’s not always the answer to all your problems.
- Your audience has a lot of influence over the success of your brand and business, and gaining back their trust can be hard.
- The content you publish today will live on the internet forever, so be careful what you post.
Social media is one of the most powerful tools at our disposal today. It’s an accessible way for celebrities and influencers to connect with fans and build their public image. However, while it’s typically home to carefully curated content that’s meant to build an influencer’s brand, it can easily be used to destroy careers and reputations. There are more than a few instances where the latter has happened and we wanted to touch on them in this blog so you can avoid making the same mistakes.
Lesson 1: Keep a clear and consistent message
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, the Free Britney movement is no mystery to you. The international pop icon has garnered the support of millions of fans and casual observers across the globe in her battle to end her conservatorship, and the key to the success of the campaign was that the messaging was always easy to understand.
Sleuthing fans have always been focused on exposing the truth by uncovering court documents and mapping out the timeline of events surrounding the conservatorship, and they have shared this information through platforms like the freebritney.army website and the Britney Gram’s podcast. As a result of the consistent messaging and relentless backing by fans, the Free Britney movement was able to aid Spears in her ongoing legal battle, and steps are finally being taken to remove her father from the conservatorship!
Lesson 2: Outsourcing work can lighten your workload and produce great results, but choose your partners wisely.
Rising star, Olivia Rodrigo, is no stranger to internet scandals after her song “Driver’s License” sparked wild rumors about a messy love triangle involving Joshua Bassett and Sabrina Carpenter. Following her hit single, the singer released her debut album ‘Sour’ which was received very well by fans. However, while her album was a hit, fans’ sentiments turned sour when they received poor quality merchandise after waiting months for the items to arrive. Errors in the merch ranged from misspellings and crooked words to “thin” and “cheap” clothing that looked drastically different from what was advertised. TikTokers were quick to call out the mistakes, with some videos reaching up to 800,000 views!
While hiring another company to help you with work can be a great way to improve productivity, it’s important to ensure that whoever is handling the job is able to maintain the level of quality that you’re expecting. No one wants to be left to clean up someone else’s mess.
Lesson 3: When you lose the trust of your audience, it’s difficult to recover.
Take it from David Dobrik and the demise of The Vlog Squad: your public image can be torn down just as quickly as it was built. During the three-month hiatus that he took from his YouTube channel after dealing with some serious accusations, it seemed like David’s entire career was on the line. Not only was his channel demonetized, he lost numerous brand deals, and left his position as a board member at Dispo, a photography app that he co-founded.
Today, David has returned to posting his regular content, and his career seems to be returning to normal, but it’s going to take some time before his viewership is back to where it used to be.
Lesson 4: The past will always come back to haunt you.
We all deserve a chance to grow from our past mistakes, but what you publish online lives there forever. That’s right, the YouTube videos you published when you were 11 still exist on the internet somewhere waiting to be rediscovered. While your brand is still growing, you may think it’s easy to scrub your image clean by making old accounts private and deleting content that no longer fits your image, but this doesn’t account for screenshots and copies of the posts you made.
Model Chrissy Teigen is an excellent example of this lesson. Beloved for her “realness” online, Chrissy faced a wave of controversy in June after several people came forward claiming that the star had cyberbullied them. After old Tweets resurfaced showing Chrissy going after Lindsay Lohan, Courtney Stodden, and Farrah Abraham, the model went to Medium where she posted a blog article apologizing for her past comments and later deleted her Twitter account.
To protect your brand, only put out content that aligns with your mission and think twice about publishing statements that may be harmful to others. Better yet, don’t publish negative content at all!
Lesson 5: Your personal drama online does not need to be shared with the world.
The YouTube beauty community has had their fair share of drama but few can forget the drammagedon of 2019,when beauty guru Tati Westbrook took to her channel to post an hour-long video denouncing her former friend and mentee, James Charles. In the weeks that followed, both influencers posted lengthy videos attempting to explain their side of the story and fans were fervently trying to pick sides.
The immense amount of stress that Tati and James most likely experienced could have been avoided had this feud been handled privately. Instead, both were trapped in a drawn out battle that now had to include input from other influencers, drama channels and fans. Save yourself the headache and keep your private life to yourself!
Interested in learning more?
The marketing experts at Redefine Marketing Group can help you avoid these mistakes and take your social media platforms to new heights. Contact us today!
