Brands are spending more and more on social media in the hope that it will lead to greater exposure and


increased sales. But is the payoff worth the investment? by Lisa van de Geyn


S


IXTY-YEAR-OLD ACTRESS CARRIE FISHER died on Tuesday, December 27, 2016. Her death came at the end of what was deemed a morbid year, with dozens of hugely popular celebrities — from David Bowie and Prince to Florence Henderson


and Debbie Reynolds (Fisher’s mother, who died a day aſter her daughter did) — passing away. When the news broke of Fisher’s death, the Twittersphere (the collective postings made on the social media platform Twitter, for those who don’t partake in the site) lit up with celebs and fans sharing condolences and memories. Most centred around folks saying a final goodbye to Princess Leia, the role Fisher made famous when the first Star Wars flick was released in 1977. William Shatner tweeted about his friend at 10:07 a.m.: “I’m


deeply saddened to learn of the death of Carrie Fisher. I will miss our banterings [sic]. A wonderful talent & light has been extinguished.” At 10:38 a.m., costar Mark Hamill tweeted, “no words


#Devastated.” Star Trek’s George Takei wrote at 1:43 p.m.: “May her soul rest


in eternal peace, as we return her to the heavens, in a galaxy far, far away.” Even Justin Trudeau sent his sympathies with a tweet at 1:46


p.m. “We’ll never forget you, Carrie. May the Force be with you always.” Later in the day, at 4:39 p.m., an employee at Cinnabon — perhaps sitting at his or her desk with a smartphone in hand, maybe getting ready to go home aſter a long day at the office — tweeted this from the organization’s official account: “RIP Carrie Fisher, you’ll always have the best buns in the galaxy.” An image of Fisher with icing-topped Cinnabon rolls representing Princess Leia’s famous hairdo accompanied the tweet. To put it delicately, the US baked goods company was burned


(pun intended) online, taking enough heat from its arguably tasteless post that it issued an apology at 10:28 p.m., six hours later. “Our deleted tweet was genuinely meant as a tribute, but we shouldn’t have posted it. We are truly sorry.” Cinnabon made a #SocialMediaFail. It’s certainly not the


only company that’s been there. Businesses are finding that social media can make or break their marketing efforts — the wrong tweet, an irresponsible Facebook post or an awkward Instagram photo can damage brands that have taken decades to build, lose important celebrity endorsements, upset loyal


customers and ultimately lose big bucks. In January, H&M (the international Swedish-based clothing company) was called out as racist by superstar The Weeknd all over social media because of an ad it posted with a young black boy wearing a hoodie that read, “Coolest monkey in the jungle.” The Weeknd, in turn, tweeted this to his 8.39 million followers: “woke up this morning shocked and embarrassed by this photo. i’m deeply offended and will not be working with @hm anymore...” Yes, these anecdotes are alarming, and you might be wonder-


ing if participating on social media platforms is worth it. The truth is, social media isn’t something you or your company can simply ignore. “It’s no longer a question of whether an organi- zation or firm should be active on social media. That’s like asking if one should have a telephone, fax or email back in the dark ages,” says Bhupesh Shah, a professor in the school of mar- keting and program coordinator of the Social Media Graduate Certificate program at Seneca College in Toronto. “It’s an expec- tation. It’s a given. You can’t say you’re in business without the tools to communicate with your customers. Social media is one of those standard tools.” Ernest Barbaric, a digital marketing strategist in Calgary,


views social media as putty. “It can be shaped to fit any market- ing purpose — from customer service and lead generation to relationship building and influencing policy. You get to decide how it will be used.” And when it’s used properly (unlike the way it was used in our


previous examples), the medium can add a ton of value. There have been a myriad of brilliant campaigns that have gone viral — the #KnowYourLemons worldwide breast cancer awareness and education program; BuzzFeed’s Tasty food video series on Facebook; and, whether you like him or not, US president Donald Trump’s #MAGA hashtag, which was used more than eight million times during the last 30 days of his campaign. Word is that about 80% of Fortune 500 companies have super- active Facebook pages and are really using their social-media- savvy employees to garner follows by creating custom content such as videos, live-streams and more. A survey released by Clutch, a US-based research firm, in September 2017 estimates 2.5 billion people worldwide will be active on social media this year. It found more than half (52%) of social media marketers say these platforms have helped increase their company’s revenue and sales. Social media man- agers said the most valuable platforms for business are


FEBRUARY/MARCH 2018 | CPA MAGAZINE | 35


Andrew Brookes/Cultura/Getty/modified by Kevin Pudsey


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