How to Lose Trust with Customers on Facebook

In an astounding blunder, the people who manage the social media campaign for hit TV show, Dexter, posted a note on Facebook revealing a huge event from the last season. For many fans, the reveal was a huge disappointment. As we all know, many people choose to buy or rent the full season of a show once it comes out on DVD or digital TV. This means doing everything we can NOT to find out what happens in advance. This morning when I logged into Facebook, posted on my status home page was a video and a note talking about the death of a major character of the show (don’t worry I won’t tell you who it is in case you haven’t seen the last season yet). It was a major lunch-bag-let-down, but a good lesson for people wondering about the do’s and don’t of social media.

Since Facebook “pushes” content to you based on your likes, you need to think carefully about the information you disseminate through it. For example, I have not signed up to receive updates for Dexter and I am not a fan of the Dexter Facebook page, but because I have it listed on my profile as a favorite TV show, Facebook has decided that the information is important to me and so it automatically appears.

The moral of the story: If you wait to watch your favorite TV shows until they come out on DVD or digital TV, don’t add those shows to your profile. And if you are a business trying to muddle your way around social media, remember the needs of your audience. Know them inside and out before you put your message out. If you don’t, social media can do more damage than good. Many Dexter fans are furious about the reveal. Knowing what they’ve told us will significantly take away from the story when we buy the season.

Dexter airs on Showtime and has over 1 million network viewers over 4.1 million facebook fans.