Last week we looked at some recent Twitter escapades that had in common the mistaken belief by marketers that Twitter has something to do with them. This backfires rather a lot.
Another thing that often ends badly is saying anything at all. Sometimes the best Twitter strategy of all is to zip it. Time for a few teachable moments:
Amy’s Baking Company, a restaurant so awful even Gordon Ramsay walked away, got mad at the universe on Twitter. Cheezburger has a delightful account. This shot is a good representation of the less-than-productive dialogue with their customers. As a rule, if you’re telling anyone to suck anything that isn’t a cough drop, you should turn off Twitter for the day.
Shutting up when you’re angry is just good business sense. So is shutting up when there is simply nothing helpful to say. Epicurious, the foodie website, shared everyone’s horror over the Boston Marathon bombing last year. Problem is, they decided to act on it with this:
Another good time to shut up is when your brand is under scrutiny for something people think is gross. Like horse meat in your premade burger patties. Some marketer spent all morning coming up with this Tweet for UK grocery chain Tesco.
You probably want to lay low if you are in the news for unsavoury wage and tax practices, too. Even if it’s Christmas. Especially if it’s Christmas. Some poor intern at Starbucks got the tweet copy from the manager, who got it from the director, who got it from the agency, who wrote it in July. The same agency, no doubt, that thought it would be way cool to have pop-up live feeds at museums, skating rinks and other very, very public places. Lots of people were only too happy to spread the cheer that day.
I think we can all agree that civil wars are not really an appropriate news hook for shoes and handbags. They just aren’t. So while the world debated whether or not to put boots on the ground in Syria, Kenneth Cole put stupidity on the Internet:
What can all of these very public face plants teach us?
- Not everyone who follows you on Twitter is your friend
- Twitter will outrun you every single time
- When something bad happens to someone else, just shut up; your opinion does not matter
- When you do something bad, apologize and shut up.
- You will not tweet your way out of a PR problem, but you can sure tweet your way in
- Every little thing you do is branding
- If you think you are about to be mind-blowingly clever on Twitter, you are probably about to make a horrible mistake
Related Posts:
Social Media is the Lighter Fluid, Not the Barbeque
Why I Won’t Accept Your LinkedIn Invite
BizMarketer is Elizabeth Williams
You can reach me at escwilliams@gmail.com
or follow me on Twitter @bizmkter
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