Recently I wrote about scheduling your posts across blogs and social media. I maintain that you SHOULD still schedule if you are able, but in light of recent incidents, I think it’s important to add an addendum to this social media marketing rule:

Always be aware of significant current events.

I’m not talking about your everyday news.Hurricane Sandy is a good example of an event that needed special attention. There were places all over the eastern seaboard that had posts scheduled that maybe weren’t the best idea when they knew the super- storm was coming. The day after it hit, when most businesses were closed, many scheduled posts encouraging people to “come on down!” were broadcast out.

There are a couple problems with this. The first is that the customer may realize it’s a scheduled, automated post. They probably won’t be mad, but your social presence may lose that human touch. The second problem is if they don’t realize it’s automated and try to come down. That WILL make them angry and understandably so!

Another example is the terrible shootings in Aurora, Colorado. No one with an ounce of human decency would joke about such an event, but it happened to some businesses by accident. It’s easy to see how. They knew Batman was coming out, so they scheduled a post involving the Joker to coincide. After the attack, they appeared to be making light of it.

No one can see the future, so you just have to be vigilant. Schedule your posts, but always keep in mind that what’s benign on Monday might be offensive on Friday.

Original article about being careful when scheduling posts was published on Wikimotive's blog under the title Scheduling Posts--What to Watch out For