i continue to be shocked by the ineptitude of social marketers in their ability to understand the gravity of specific situations and avoid certain trending topics that are entirely unrelated to their industry. how many times, year after year, are we going to see brands making inappropriate posts which juxtapose their products and serious situations?

a few years back, american apparel created a sales promotion for folks ‘bored’ with hurricane sandy which caused biblical amounts of flooding in certain areas of the northeastern area of the united states. spaghettio’s really stepped in it last year with a completely inappropriate tweet on pearl harbor remembrance day. and this year digiorno pizza hopped onto a trending topic intended to raise awareness about domestic violence thinking it would be a great time to advertise their product.

it’s amazing that after so many mistakes people still can’t get it right.

though the gentlemen who wrote the cluetrain manifesto were right when saying that markets are conversations, social marketers need to recognize which conversations they’re actually a part of and stay clear of the ones they’re not.

sometimes it’s ok to not say anything at all. truly, it is.