Some brands nail their tone of voice on social media, from the tongue-in-cheek responses from Virgin Trains (we miss you), through to US fast-food joint Wendy’s and its brutal put-downs.

However, getting it right is about more than good humour. Brands dealing with a lot of social media enquiries require an in-depth knowledge of the territory they’re working in and precisely who their audience is.

In the month that Amazon inadvertently united Ireland, we take a look at why cultural awareness is key in establishing a robust social media presence.

Amazon Unity

In case you missed it, a response to a customer query from Amazon (see below) implied they didn’t understand that Northern Ireland is part of the UK. 

What followed was an onslaught of Irish humour, with memes including Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams as the Amazon customer service rep for the retail giant responsible for the tweet. The result led to “United Ireland” and “the troubles” briefly trending, and the customer service tweet receiving thousands of retweets.

Cultural differences

On another light-hearted note, Aldi UK was poked fun at by rival Lidl after its social content made it look like it was introducing a new meat product to English shelves.

Anyone in Scotland knows that the square sausage (or Lorne sausage to give its correct moniker) has been a mainstay on a full Scottish breakfast for aeons (epic hangover cure btw). Just like Irn Bru, and coconut ices, the flatter sausage just isn’t as popular south of the border.

Not exclusive to social media

When it comes to cultural nuisances, brands on social media aren’t alone in their mistakes. News reporters have been mispronouncing place names for years – Milngavie, anyone? Yet, in light of these gaffes, which were met with mostly good humour, there is a darker side when brands get it wrong.

We’ve all witnessed brands misreading the room when unleashing a social media post, ranging from the bizarre to the downright offensive. It’s often the grey in-between areas where the most common issues reside, and collaboration is crucial to help prevent it. 

In short, brands that rely on just one or a few people to curate, edit, draft and publish posts run the risk of mistakes and backlash. While getting the whole organisation involved may seem like a slog, it doesn’t have to be. From involving leaders in social strategy to installing an internal chat function, like Slack, to discuss upcoming posts of the week, there are a number of ways to ensure no rogue social posts slip through the net without slowing down the effectiveness of the social media managers job in hand. Having a robust company-wide strategy regarding how you communicate online will help to alleviate worst-case scenarios where you insult or cause deeper hurt for your audience.

Oh, and a quick geography lesson; it’s the island of Ireland, which includes Northern Ireland (part of the UK, which is made up of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) and the Republic of Ireland. Just in case anyone was wondering… you can have that one for free, Amazon.