By Brian West, Senior Social Media Strategist, Dealer Authority

Cancel culture refers to the popular practice of withdrawing support for public figures and companies after they have done or said something considered objectionable or offensive. Cancel culture is generally discussed as being performed on social media in the form of group shaming.

Now more than ever your dealership needs a quality, precise, and up-to-date social media policy. While free speech will always be protected, the things you post on social media will be there long after you’re gone. Below I’ve outlined a few simple social media policies to help your dealership stay vigilant during these difficult times.

First and foremost, let me say that I am 100% in support of free speech. I believe we are all entitled to our opinions and beliefs.

However, cancel culture can destroy a dealership within minutes.

Here’s a hypothetical situation that many of us in the automotive industry have seen happen. A salesperson writes an inappropriate post on social media, then the post is sent to the dealership’s Facebook page asking, “Why do you allow him/her to work at your dealership?”. Your chatbot then responds with confused and canned answers that don’t resolve the issue. Suddenly, that Facebook page and Google listing has hundreds of 1-star ratings. Why? Because your dealership doesn’t have a proper social media policy.

A social media policy is an agreement between a business and its employees that states what they post on social media is representative of themselves and not the business itself. But err on the side of caution, have employees well-versed and trained on your social media policy, and supply them with guidelines. If you do a quick Google search on RocketLawyer or similar for a boilerplate social media policy, you can have it printed, signed, and filed before the end of the business day.

If your business needs help drafting a social media policy or would like assistance with any social media needs, feel free to reach out to me, Brian West, at any time. We are all in this together.