Hiring for Social Media? Don’t Forget Emotional Intelligence

by Jennifer Williams

You’ve seen it in the news.  A company’s entire brand reputation suddenly under the guillotine of public scrutiny and anger because of one tweet or Facebook post gone wrong.

Take London Luton Airport who posted this doozy on Facebook last year:

 Photo caption: See more at The 10 Biggest Social Media Marketing Fails of 2013. 

Note to London Luton; plane crashes are not funny.  This particular photo, as it turned out, was not only not funny, it depicted a tragedy that killed a 6 year old boy.

How could such a mistake have been made?

Even if  the person who posted this didn’t know the story behind the photo, plane crashes still aren’t funny.  For many, the idea of a plane crash triggers intense fear.  If London Luton really wanted to use this photo, they would have done better with a different angle, such as, “London Luton takes every precaution to prevent accidents like this when it snows.”  And if they wanted to use a humorous angle, they needed to find a photo that was actually funny, as in absurd and improbable, not emotionally triggering.

Minimizing Social Media Disasters with Intelligent Hiring

The key word in Social Media, is, has always been, and always will be “social”.  This simple fact should drive every Social Media hire.  Not – do they know how to design a Facebook page, or run a Facebook ad, or what tools to use, or how to measure?  These are important, but they can be easily learned.

What can’t be easily learned is emotional/social intelligence.  Therefore, this should be the most important criteria in hiring for Social Media management or execution.

Do they get people?   And I mean really get people.

Do they understand your core audience?  Who they are, what turns them on and off, what might trigger their defenses, what will inspire them, and so on.  Even if they understand your core audience, do they understand the sentiment about your brand, and more importantly, do they have their finger on the pulse of general public opinion about your type of brand?

The public climate is an ever-shifting landscape.

If your Social Media director/firm lacks in emotional and social intelligence, you better build some back-pedaling apologies into the schedule and the budget.