#Celebrity Social Media #Faux #Pas: And What To Learn From Them With the rise of social media, celebrities have entirely new ways to embarrass themselves and put their feet in their mouths publically. Luckily, their gaffes are our gain. Even if you don’t have millions of Twitter followers or Facebook friends, you must learn to avoid these common mistakes if you also want to avoid the repercussions! Private information should stay private. Charlie Sheen (yes, I could write an entire article about the social media antics of Charlie Sheen) accidentally tweeted his real phone number to the world. While you may not have millions of fans and followers interested in calling you, giving out personal information like your phone number, home address, or even where you are at a given time can have consequences. Bottom line: If you wouldn’t want a burglar/con-man/stalker to know the information, don’t post it. Reacting without full information. After coach Joe Paterno was fired for his involvement in a child abuse scandal, fan Ashton Kutcher tweeted his defense of the coach — without reading up on why the man was fired. An embarrassed Kutcher apologised for the insensitive comments, and has since handed his Twitter account over to media handlers. Bottom Line: If you have an opinion, make sure it’s an informed one. Posting at work. Former Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson was fined $25,000 for tweeting during a pre-season game, which is against NFL policy. But apart from your boss finding out that you’ve been Facebooking at work, you might make an even bigger mistake. In 2012, the official Chrysler Twitter account tweeted, “I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to f**king drive,” which was later attributed to an employee who thought he was posting to his personal account. Bottom line: Be double careful posting to social media at work. Misusing hashtags. During the protests in Egypt, fashion designer Kenneth Cole personally tweeted “Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is available online.” Similarly, after the movie theater shootings in Aurora, Colorado, a fashion line tweeted, “#Aurora is trending, clearly because of our Kim K. inspired #Aurora dress,” trying to capitalize on the hashtag’s popularity without understanding it. Bottom line: Don’t just jump on a bandwagon you don’t understand. Hashtag with care. Griping about the boss or your coworkers. Mark Cuban was slapped with a $25,000 fine from the NBA for publicly complaining about referees on social media. And being Mark Cuban, he didn’t apologize, but he did pay the fine. Courtney Love, on the other hand, is being sued for libel and defamation by a fashion designer she was working with after she posted derogatory comments about the designer online. Bottom line: Don’t say anything online that you wouldn’t say to your boss or coworker’s face. Always remember, nothing on social media is truly private. You can find everything on the Internet. Pop star Miley Cyrus made waves when she let her date, a homeless young man from L.A., accept her MTV Video Award recently to bring attention to the problem of youth homelessness. The publicity stunt was done in good faith, with Miley reportedly supporting nonprofits that fight youth homelessness, but media outlets quickly discovered that her handsome young gentleman friend was a wanted criminal in another state, which made her activism take a backseat to the gossip machine. Bottom line: Do your research and know that nothing ever goes away online. Maybe the funniest (and saddest) part of all of this is that, while these mistakes were on a huge scale due to the fame of the people making them, they could have easily been avoided by understanding some simple social media etiquette. I think it can be summed up by saying: Nothing about social media is private. If there is anyone on the planet who shouldn’t know about it? Don’t tweet it. Written by Bernard Marr
Posted on: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 15:34:36 +0000
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