Topic: Harmful Content

The COVID-19 pandemic has touched every aspect of our lives in the past 12 months, including how much we use digital technology and social media. We have turned online to communicate, socialize, learn, and play—with our screen time, in many cases, exceeding our offline activities. 

Harmful content has always been a necessary evil when engaging directly with consumers. For most brands, it used to be like cosmic radiation from the sun; always there, spiking periodically, but not terribly hazardous at low doses. Then 2020 exploded, releasing Chernobyl-type levels of contamination that have decimated the growth strategies of social media managers.

In a move that has now made U.S. national news and gotten the attention of Congress, WallStreetBets, an online agenda-driven group, coordinated purchases that drove up the price of GameStop stock, some 2,000% in less than 30 days. They didn’t stop there, though. They also short squeezed AMC, BlackBerry, and Tootsie Roll, among others. 

In any other year, you may have just completed the annual social media audit or are preparing to have one done to assess the effectiveness of efforts on your social channels and identify opportunities for improvement. But if we’ve learned anything from the past year, it’s that we still have to plan for a future where the visibility ahead is limited by a dense fog of uncertainty.

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Or...will they?

TikTok, the addictively simple video-sharing social media platform, was officially the most downloaded app of 2020. They beat out Facebook for the most downloads last year, which represents a three-spot jump for TikTok from 2019.

For leadership teams and boards, 2020 will be remembered as a time when chief communication officers stepped up and shined in the midst of turmoil and uncertainty. As brand communicators responded to the ever changing COVID-19 landscape, seamlessly pivoting strategy became the norm.

Sports exert a powerful influence on life, imparting values such as teamwork, perseverance, and fair play for those who participate and spectate. Pro sports have continued to step up and shine a bright light on the ongoing international movement for anti-racism and social justice.

It seems no good deed goes unpunished on social media.

Leadership is challenging in the best of times. Now, faced with a prolonged pandemic, an economic downturn, nationwide social justice protests, and unprecedented political divisiveness, even the most sophisticated brand leaders are struggling to navigate turbulent waters.

Even with life thrown out of whack by the pandemic, holiday shoppers experience a Pavlovian response when they hear those two little words, “Black Friday.”

Your company's reputation is a priceless asset. When the character and credibility of your brand are publicly called into question, the damage can have a lasting and dramatic effect on enterprise value.