Today, the FIFA World Cup started in Qatar. Many brands see this as an opportunity to promote themselves by talking about this, supporting their home teams, orusing the same hashtags.
That can be a great idea as long as you know what you’re talking about, but if you don’t know anything about soccer, it’s better to stay out of the discussion, because it could work against you.
It is generally a great idea to stay away from topics that have nothing to do with you as a brand, be it politics, sports, or whatever subject comes to mind. If your brand is not related to sports, why would you say something about them?
Supporting your home team is one of the pretty safe things you can do, but be careful and do not engage in a discussion with the opposite team. If you do, keep it polite, keep it brief, and keep it about the sport.
If you’ve spent some time doing marketing stuff, you surely have noticed that you should never engage in a discussion about politics, unless you are a politician and/or fully understand every aspect of the topic that’s being discussed.
The same thing happens with sports. Especially soccer, which is some kind of religion in some countries like Brazil or Argentina, or even Mexico. So, if you are not a soccer expert, stay away from it.
You don’t want to be seen as an opportunistic brand or as a fake fan. That’s a label that’s going to take a lot of effort to remove once you’ve earned it. You’d think it’s harmless, but it’s not.
Sportswear brands are very careful with this kind of thing. They hire experts to handle their content, so they don’t say anything inappropriate or anything stupid. One post can cause a lot of damage to your brand.
Every time you post something, you should consider every aspect of it. Are you saying something that could be misinterpreted in some way? What is it saying about your brand?
Remember, you should only talk about things that you want to be associated with. When someone thinks about your brand, do you want them to think about sports? About soccer?
If the answer is no, then don’t even think about using the World Cup’s hashtags or saying something about it in your content. Soccer fans are very passionate, and even using the wrong terms can be very costly reputation-wise.
You don’t need to be a part of every trend. Your content doesn’t need to include every hashtag. Pick only the ones that say the right things about your company, above all if it is about soccer and Qatar.
Old Dog Digital 