By now you’ve probably heard about Fyre Festival – what was supposed to be an Insta-worthy music festival in the Bahamas, turned out to be one of the biggest disasters in the history of social media marketing. As documented on Netflix and Hulu, the whole event had a massive PR campaign and promised beautiful villas, a private jet, fancy food catered, and all located on a private island. What actually happened? Hurricane shelter tents, a normal airplane, a plain (very sad looking) sandwich, and it was not on a private island. When I watched the documentaries, it made me think about all the marketing lessons we can learn from this event.

1. Always be up front and honest

Creators of the Fyre Festival knew that the event wasn’t going to be as promised, even if it wasn’t the complete disaster it turned out to be. When problems arose, they didn’t update anyone. They even kept their social media fans in the dark, didn’t respond to their questions and concerns and deleted all of the negative comments. When people arrived at the festival and saw what it actually was, they soon realized that they had been deceived. If the creators had openly acknowledged the issues, it still wouldn’t have been a success, but it wouldn’t have gone down in infamy like it actually did.

When promoting services, items, sales or events within your tanning salon, always be sure to communicate and be open with your clients. Overhyping something is worse than not selling it at all – you never want to disappoint your clients. If something isn’t turning out as you previously expected, and told them to expect, you need to cut your losses and let them know ahead of time. They’ll feel appreciated and valued and surely be more understanding than if you were to let them find out on their own.

Click here to read the entire article in the latest issue of Smart Tan Magazine online.