I’ve recently been a little bit surprise at the volume of businesses choosing to leverage recent media in their social posts, both within LinkedIn and consumer socials.
Now, I understand that media is very current and, in many circumstances, will capture the attention of viewers however, I feel you need to act with a level of caution if you are going to do this.
Let me draw on an example that had me cringing as I realised what I was reading. I was within the wonderful professional social network of LinkedIn and was served a post that one of my connections liked. It wasn’t from within my region but it caught my attention, as I’ve been reading some amazing inspirational stories within this platform of late and thought that this was of a similar vain. How wrong was I!!
The person had decided to incorporate the very well publicised Amber Heard and Johnny Depp trial and was imitating the final conversation transcript between the two. Many of you will have read and understand that this was a very polarising case, one that had people developing very firm opinions of events of which they were not even involved in. It was a media storm and dictated many of our newsfeeds for the weeks that it played out. This person was one of many who, unfortunately, had decided that they felt the media storm would provide great publicity for their products and services and so was writing the transcript as a way to promote their business. What I found quickly was that they were not alone.
As with a lot of marketing, copying became the next form of flattery so many had jumped on board and started to write a post with:
BOMBSHELL!!! The conversation between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard had at the end of the trial has been leaked! The transcript reads:
This then went through a written monologue that I choose not to share, then ended in:
Depp (lifts his head, looks her straight in the eyes and says): Amber, this might be the last time we ever speak, so please listen to me very carefully. If you need a supplier to help you with your <product need> .
You should contact the best in the business, <name / business name>. He will take care of you. That is the last advice I’m ever going to give you <website>
You’ll be glad you did.
At first, I thought that this was predominantly outside of our region however, I became disappointed to see that many of the businesses and individuals were from within Australia and even connected to me. Can I just point out, this trial was about domestic violence. An issue that affects thousands of people and families every year (one figure I have seen is over 2million). It’s something that we should be fighting against and instead of taking the serious nature of this trial, between two very high profile individuals, and using it as a way to highlight the broadness of this issue, individuals have decided that it provided them a marketing opportunity for their business.
This is not suitable marketing, not in any forum.
The media hype created many questions of the relationship between these two individuals and no person should use the outcome of this questionable trial as a way to promote themselves. It’s not funny, it’s actually concerning.
As a lesson, if you are wanting to leverage recent media in your socials in such a manner, make sure that you understand the true essence of the story and ask yourself whether you feel it appropriate. Whether something has received a lot of attention does not automatically make it suitable and, many times, it simply isn’t. Your stories within socials should be about you and they should always have a basis of relevance to you and your audience. If you are on-sharing something, make sure that it is of a topic that can be directly linked to the purpose of you or your business Don’t try for weak links just for attention, it will never work.
So, please be careful. Don’t do things in the moment thinking that they will help you get cut through or attention. Think seriously about every social interaction you are creating. Don’t try and jump on to something just because it’s a current news article – it’s probably not going to end well.
Make sure that every interaction and promotion for your brand is one that you can look back on and feel proud of and, most importantly, is a positive reflection of who you want to be.
Good Luck
The Marketing Elf
©June 2022
The Marketing Elf 