Sunday, October 13, 2013

Humor in Social Media: Being Funny is a Risk, So Make Sure Your Humor Fits


Group 1


   
(Watch this Video!)  
      
Social Media Humor

In an article written for www.convinceandconvert.com titled “When Funny Becomes Inferno: A Cautionary Tale of Social Media Humor Gone Wrong” author Jay Baer addresses the subject of attempts at social media humor gone awry.  
“When In Doubt, Leave It Out” is a quote not voiced as much as it should be throughout the social media world,  reminding you that before you post with emotion, funny or no, make sure you won’t regret it in the long term. As you read through this Blog you will learn a few reasons to use caution before cracking a joke in your posts.  Vetting the Post, Blog, Tweet, etc. with a few close friends is all a good insurance exercise. If your close friends are offended with what you think is a clean comedy skit, then you can bet others will react to the information in a negative manner. It’s likely that at some point in their social media history everyone has posted at least one comment that they wish could be retracted, as Baer discusses in his article about the Evansville Indiana Regional Airport (EVV) Facebook blunder. Here’s a little 411 on EVV’s social media status.

As we browse the internet we find the EVV webpage, and just to the right of the page are the now common Facebook and Twitter symbols.  A business social media account is much different from your movie or sports stars crazy, publicity grabbing social media accounts off the wall, outrageous statements, only to later apologize for it on television to grab some more publicity, negative or not. With social media as dominant as it is, following a Twitter or Facebook is much easier than logging on to a computer to gain access to information that can be vital to a customers day.  It seems that EVV has had a Facebook account since 2009, or at least that’s when the first picture was posted. Their media campaign, and no, I am not making this up, is “You Flyin EVV, yea you know me,” which I am sure is catching like wildfire around the Evansville Airport.  There’s a tune we could sing all the time, just rolls off the tongue.  Ok, ok, so enough singing that dang song now. Hummm, maybe they are on to something, but back to the point.   Now, turning immediately to EVV’s Twitter account so we could see how their service was being rated, it appears that besides a super catchy motto they seem to only use their Twitter except to say “Have a nice flight,” for up to as many as 15 days in a row.  EVV’s Facebook is much better for activity and flight information. It would be great if they would post or link the two together, watch what they post, and come up with a motto that features ICE, ICE, Baby to help ease the customer angst when facing winter weather. Not however, a post made in reference to a tweet from Google facts that said  “We just saw a tweet from Google facts that an airline in India only hires women because they are lighter, so they save $500,000 in fuel!!! Insert your women drive jokes below – haha!”, and got the ball rolling for several offended customers to blast the post, which was intended to be funny, with some oh so harsh comments. Among those comments, “Do you guys need a social media consultant to help you recognize that professional women use your services to go on business trips and mothers are booking flights for family vacations insulting their sex is not a savvy business move?” Ouch! we say.

Luckily for EVV, the problems that this particular Facebook attempt at humor proved to be minimal, due to the post being deleted before things got too heated. The advantage this airport might have is that it is a small, regional airport with maybe (and this is a strong maybe) a couple hundred passengers a day. Though customers just can’t quit EVV “cold turkey”, because let’s face it, locals who don’t have easy access to another airport can’t be too choosy,  a social media blunder like this still has the potential to cause financial suffering through lawsuits or other means of compensation for damages incurred due to it’s inappropriate nature.  Of those couple hundred passengers, it’s not likely all of them were checking the airport Facebook page that day, and so the EVV employee responsible for the post will likely get a slap on the wrist and the “What can we do to ensure this doesn’t happen again?” speech from their manager. “What does this employee really need?” we ask ourselves. The answer is social media knowledge. This is why it’s important to keep those in charge of company social media “in the know.” All it takes to prevent most social media blunders is knowledge of what’s appropriate for social media, and so they can use techniques to determine what customers will deem funny, instead of unintentionally turning customers to fury!   

EVV seems to have recovered from its Facebook status blunder and continues to use Facebook as its main avenue of social media updates.  Status updates on EVV’s Facebook include flight deals, destination attractions, and flight and airport updates.  EVV’s tweets on Twitter are remaining generic in nature and don’t offer much information.  Recently however, there was communication via Twitter with one of our classmates regarding this assignment!  It seems that the airport works with a very small staff, and one staff member is responsible for both social media and customer service. EVV’s Facebook humor blunder did produce at least one good idea from that customer we quoted above who found fury instead of funny in EVV’s post…..Social Media Consulting. Give those in charge of social media for  business the knowledge they need to do the job responsibly by training them about social media, because not only do they need to know “When in Doubt, Leave it Out”, but the multitude of other things it takes to make social media for business successful.

As EVV proves, even attempts to be funny are a risk, so train employees in control of social media to make sure any attempts at humor indeed fit.  Social media training in any company could prevent the need to hire a lawyer who’s best defense may be “If the humor fits, you must acquit.”



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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousOctober 14, 2013 at 8:15 AM

    Your video offended me, I will now boycott group 1.
    OK, not really. I do agree it is a calculated risk, as ever thing one posts on SM is. I do not think that the women driver jokes was horrible, but agree it was not advisable for a business.
    It is easy to forget that what is not offensive in informal banter with friends is looked at differently when it comes from a business representative speaking in an official, and sometimes an unofficial, capacity.

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