This morning we posted a wedding on Offbeat Bride about a bride whose wedding outfit included a shirt she wore on her first date with her husband. The post immediately went viral on Facebook, garnering a thousand Likes and 80k views in a couple hours. Inevitably, there were a ton of comments too, including this one:
While I’ve blurred out the commenter’s name and business name, I want everyone to note that this comment was left by A WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER.
We use Facebook’s moderation tools to automatically auto-hide any comments that include the words like “tacky,” “tasteless,” and “cheap,” so no one saw this vendor’s snarky comment… but I want to stress to my wedding industry colleagues: this is not how you woo clients online. This isn’t the first time that a wedding vendor has left comments on our posts insulting the couples we feature. My mind is blown every time I see a vendor do this because, you guys: these comments are seen by your potential clients. When, as a vendor, you publicly insult a wedding, you’re sending several message about your business:
So you’re a wedding photographer. Or a wedding planner. Or a florist. And you have something that you think your favorite wedding blog might love… Read more
- That you don’t want the business of anyone who likes this wedding
- That you might make fun of your clients
- That you don’t value professional communication, and maybe you’re just generally sort of a dick (remember Wheaton’s Law!)
Again: no one saw this photographer’s comment except for my editors, so it’s not a moderation or community management issue for us at all. I’m not bothered or surprised by it (I watch people be dicks online all day every day) but from a straight-up marketing perspective? Seriously, you guys. Don’t do stuff like this to yourself. It makes you look really, really bad.