FUTURE SOCIAL HAS ITS OWN OFFICE NOW!!!! Sorry to shout, but I am so, so excited to share that I have real office space now and will never work from home again. |
The office also kicks off the next phase of my newsletter… video is coming. You’ll wanna follow me on Instagram to get some sneak peaks…
For today’s newsletter, we’re gonna talk about a pretty massive social media mistake that honestly makes my stomach churn. It can happen to any of us, so we’ll review the issue and how to make sure your social media team doesn’t have the same rough moment, with notes on: |
How social teams should handle sensitive info A social media checklist for big announcements Why you never, ever schedule content for big days
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Is this the worst Social Media mistake of all-time? |
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As social media & marketing professionals, we’re gonna have sensitive information at our finger tips from time to time. As the people who press publish on platforms, there’s nothing more important than handling that info with care.
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The Miami Heat social team just made a mistake that truly affects multiple billion dollar industries. I feel for ‘em—I’ve worked for teams that accidentally leaked major news. It’s the worst feeling ever.
Let’s take this as a learning opportunity. I’ll run through what likely happened here, & why it’s such a brutal moment, as well as how your social teams should handle sensitive information. |
The LeBron leak… or maybe LeBron mistake? |
If you haven't heard, LeBron James made a historic decision to leave the Lakers without deciding which team he'd play for next. That was 22 days ago, causing speculation we've truly never seen in sports—we've never heard of a superstar taking this long to decide.
Naturally, that's affecting several billion dollar industries. The NBA says they can't release next season's schedule because LeBron games gotta be televised. Sports betting has gone crazy with over $168 million worth of Kalshi bets placed on LeBron’s next move. At least 4 different NBA teams are making multi-million dollar financial decisions just to court LeBron. |
Anddd the Miami Heat just accidentally poured gas on the fire. |
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The team briefly scheduled a YouTube livestream titled "LeBron James Introductory Press Conference" for July 27. They quickly deleted it, but the internet is forever—plenty of screenshots quickly went viral. Heat representatives told reporters that it wasn’t a leak and that the team was preparing for the possibility of a LeBron signing. |
Yikes. |
Whether this was a genuine leak or an honest mistake, the situation highlights an important lesson for anyone working in social media: the bigger the announcement, the more disciplined your operational process needs to be.
I’ve put together a checklist of things to consider for your social teams when making big news. |
The bigger the moment, the more boring the process |
When you’re about to reveal something big, you wanna use tried & true tactics that you have full confidence in deploying. Keep it simple. Don’t get slick & try experimenting with toolsets & mechanics you’ve never used before. Don’t test something for the first time. The highest-pressure moments gotta have the lowest-risk workflows. |
Never, ever schedule anything for big moments |
For every major brand announcement I’ve worked on, we hit the publish button ourselves, even if it was at midnight. Scheduling tools work great, but for the high stakes moments, you want the chance to troubleshoot til the final second & be right there when the news goes live. |
Use codenames and fake titles |
When I worked on a DC Comics video game, nearly our whole character list leaked after some kids hacked our website—they noticed that some file names included individual character names we hadn’t revealed yet.
If the Heat truly needed to test the YouTube Live capabilities, the test should’ve said literally ANYTHING besides “LeBron James Introductory Press Conference.” It could've been called "Test Stream," "Project X," or literally anything that didn't reveal the announcement. When you’re testing things, please make up phrases and names that no one would associate with the real news. |
Upload assets at the very last minute |
When you’re working on social assets for major news, don’t upload them to your scheduling tools or social platforms until the last possible second. Definitely don’t use the social platforms as design tools or places where you make changes—that should all be offline. |
The closer your workflow gets to the Publish button, the greater the chance something accidentally becomes public. Whether it's a scheduled livestream, a draft post, or a preview page, you're introducing risk by creating inside the platform itself. |
But back to LeBron… |
If I had to guess? I think the Heat’s post is a true leak—it’s just too specific for it to be some sort of test. I wrote more about the NBA ramifications on my LinkedIn.
Guess we’ll find out in a few days what the reality is, but either way, hope every social team learns from this moment. Be prepared, be careful. |
