Every couple weeks a story breaks because a brand’s digital media content was perceived negatively or a mistake was made which put a group of consumers in uproar. Most of the time the post was sent with the purest of intentions, but as digital marketers it’s especially important to ensure that your post will not be misinterpreted and that you fully understand every context it could be viewed from. Being that the social media sphere is such an instantaneous community there is pressure to get your content out fast – especially around hot topics – for the best results.

(First example of a company doing this right that comes to mind is Oreo’s “You Can Still Dunk in the Dark” tweet during the 2013 Superbowl blackout)

But what about when you come up with something clever, put it out there, and things go horribly wrong? The unfortunate thing with digital media is that once it’s out there, it’s near impossible to take it back. Last week it was DiGiorno’s twitter account made a horrible error by trying to get a witty tweet into a trending hashtag conversation without researching the context. The #WhyIStayed was for people to express their experiences in abusive relationships and to combat the perception that the victim is at fault for staying in that relationship. DiGiorno prides themselves on being on top of real-time conversations and quickly put in the following tweet after seeing the trending hashtag without apparently looking into the context of the conversation.

Photo taken from AdWeek

It’s vital as digital marketers to be especially careful with what we put out (especially if you’re doing so in the name of a brand) because this small mistake put DiGiorno’s reputation at risk. We need to be aware of the pressures of instantaneous communication but balance that with taking a deep breath to think about the many ways a comment could be perceived to avoid misinterpretation from the author or reader!

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