Chipotle Should Read This Book

Last updated on: July 29, 2013 at 6:35 pm by Chris Henrichsen

Chipotle Should Read This Book 2013-07-29T18:35:37-07:00 Chris Henrichsen

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Apparently the Chipotle restaurant chain has created a bit of trouble for itself by pretending that their Twitter account had been hacked.

As one analyst noted in the Washington Post article:

“The cardinal rules of social media are transparency and trust building,” he said. “It is sophomoric and it is dangerous to play with the trust and transparency of your followers and your customer base,” he said.

Oops! Mistakes like these are not the end of the world and most customers will never even notice. However, these types of incidents might scare away those who are thinking about venturing into the world of social media for their business, organization, or church.

Don’t be scared! While there are things that you should not do with your social media…not doing social media is not the answer. You should already be doing it. If you are not yet doing it…it is never too late.

A good place to start would be with the book The Social Media Gospel by Meredith Gould.

Gould’s book is specifically aimed at pastors and churches and how they might use, and better use, social media. I do not fall in this category myself. However, I found that much of the book was quite useful as I consider how to use social media more promoting my blog and my nonprofit ventures.

I wish I had read this book earlier in my social media life, particularly before my Congressional campaign. During my campaign, I ran my own social media operation. I knew how to use platforms like Facebook and Twitter, but I did not know much…and still really don’t…about how to use them to build community and to reach out to individuals.

Gould has some particular useful sections on the things your should, and shouldn’t, do with social media. Here Chipotle could have benefited. While I do not recall Gould saying that you should hoax your audience about your account being hacked, the reflective nature of her book might have led them in a wiser direction.

The book is short. With the appendixes (which are some of the most useful parts), it is only 128 pages. This is perfect for those who are looking to use social media and create specific strategies and plans for their organization, but who are not really interested in spending tons of time reading about it. This is a how-to-manual and not and academic reflection. Thank goodness!

I particularly liked Gould’s look at the different social media platforms. Pinterest might be useful for certain groups, but useless for others. You know your organization and your audience best, but The Social Media Gospel will help you think through the different platforms. You might be using the wrong ones! Maybe you are already using the one the fits you best and you should stop worrying about the rest. Rather than pouring tons of time into each one, have Gould help you plan and strategize.

Good luck! Oh, and please share this post on your social media. Thanks. 🙂

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