Social Media is unprofessional for employee’s but not brands

In 2015 Barclays ran a series of adverts that taught people LifeSkills such as to keep your email address professional and how to use your social media to get a job.

There’s a lot pressure on job hunters to make sure that their social media is presentable with a bad social media history and a promotion of unpopular ideas nowadays costing people their jobs.

However, what is still deemed unprofessional for employees seems to be fine for brands.

At least three years ago American fast food chain Wendy’s started joining in on the social media fun by sending comedic clapbacks to it followers on Twitter. Since then companies have invested so much more into their social media marketing.

A method brands, predominantly fast fashion brands, take is to tweet along with their customers about the most popular TV shows. In the United Kingdom this means tweeting about summer smash hit and winter flop Love Island. Despite the many complaints people have had about the show Brits still gather in their thousands to live tweet about the turbulent relationships of the islanders. The involvement of brands on the fun is never as popular as a Wendy’s comeback but is usually well received on Twitter as the main consumers of the fashion companies are also the key demographic for the reality show.

Trying so hard to be in on the joke though, can also negatively impact companies. In February of 2019, BET was forced to do damage control after trying to add more fire to the rivalry between American rappers, Nicki Minaj and Cardi B with a Facebook post promoting Cardi’s Grammy win for best solo rap album while shading Mrs Petty. This cost the entertainment company a valuable relationship with platinum selling female rapper Nicki Minaj, who was one of few notable guests that would attend and perform at their events. 

Some businesses use their better judgement and decide to leave the jokes to the regular folk. After the unfortunate death of former Love Island host Caroline Flack during Winter Love Island, some brands refrained from joining in on Twitter’s dark humour. Missguided instead supported ITV’s #BeKind movement and shared crisis hotlines with their over four hundred thousand followers. This, however, seemed to be a temporary change, as the fashion company does now regularly posts memes to their audience.

Comedy isn’t the only way that brands seek to connect with their consumers online. Fashion brands in particular have taken to using the vernacular of their target audiences both through their social media marketing and slogan on their clothing. Slogan tees aren’t a new phenomenon, with GEEK t- shirts springing to mind first, but the use of memes and gifs is still new and popular.

As companies’ social media presence becomes more integral to their success the question becomes how involved these brands can get into the social media world without losing their professionalism.