Social media platforms have made the whole world your audience. But that doesn’t mean that it’s okay to talk about everything under the sun. Certain topics are sensitive, as not only can they be offensive to certain people, but also harm them in some ways. Creating such content can attract controversies and even destroy the YouTube channel you’ve spent years creating. Here are a few topics that you should avoid.
1. Politics
Your social media followers might be from various backgrounds and have very diverse political opinions. Sharing your political beliefs and trying to sway them to your side rarely goes as planned. Your opinions might end up alienating sections of your audience and you might even lose a lot of subscribers.
Unless you represent a political organisation, avoid controversial political topics, especially political propaganda, that might offend your followers.
2. Religion
Defer from propagating your religious opinions on social media. There might be several events or festivals about different religions, and it is absolutely fine to celebrate these and wish your audience on these occasions.
But negative criticism can sway your audience and attract unnecessary controversies. Unless your opinions are coming from a place of concern or solidarity, it’s better to steer clear of these topics.
3. Amateur medical advice
If you are not a medical professional, avoid giving medical advice to your viewers. However, you might talk about your medical issues and the medicines/steps you take to tackle them. As you do, let the audience know that these are things that work for you and have been prescribed to you, but they should not blindly follow what you are doing.
Giving unwarranted medical advice can attract controversies from the medical community and also affect your viewers’ health. If your viewers are looking for legit medical advice, you can talk about reliable sources online and offline that they can go to, such as apps to find doctors in their area or YouTubers like Doctor Mike.
4. Fake news
Fake news spreads faster than the truth, so it might seem believable when you first see or hear it. But don’t believe news without doing your research. If you ever get accused of propagating fake news, viewers will lose trust in you. A lot of social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram can also disable your account if you spread fake news.
As a thumb rule, be very purposeful about everything you post on YouTube. Before you click that publish button, think to yourself, ‘is this going to hurt anyone?’ or ‘is this truthful?’. More often than not, your intuition should guide you in the right direction.
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