We have heard about retailers using a trending topic before to their detriment - ie, Kenneth Cole. In that case, it was clear that Kenneth Cole knew what was happening in Cairo and deliberately used the trending topic to get attention. But, sometimes the mistake could be even less intentional, with just as loud a firestorm. Today, an online clothing retailer, Celeb Boutique, is now incurring the wrath of many due to their Tweet using the trending topic, "Aurora" - the name of a city in Colorado where a horrific mass shooting took place late last week. The details can be read here - http://smallbusiness.foxbusiness.com/marketing-sales/2012/07/23/small-business-apologizes-for-misinformed-aurora-tweet/.
But what sets this situation apart is again, the lack of intention - the Tweeter did not know why this word was a trending topic. Some experts in the article are quick to mention that the site did the right thing by being forthright, apologetic, and quick to action. Yes, that is all well and good, and should represent the model for how to begin to overcome such a PR disaster.
But the thing that struck me more than any other point in the article was the advice not to pre-Tweet, as so many things can happen between the constructio of a tweet and the posting of one. What makes that so interesting to me is that so many businesses rely on their timed tweets, but perhaps at their own risk?
Maybe the advice should be more along the lines of - be careful when you choose to exploit trending topics. Moreover, can't we be more creative in our tweeting than just using trending topics? Afterall, there are some who question the effect of hashtags as it is! See - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-rimalower/hashtags-are-over_b_1640208.html ...but that is another blog for another day.
2 comments:
I wonder if it's possible that the Tweets in question were automatically generated based on the key words or phrases? We see this happen on occasion with ads showing up along side of articles that they don't belong in, so could it be possible that these tweets are revealing more marketing set on algorithmic autopilot? Just a thought. I could be totally wrong.
I thought the same thing, but it was pretty specific. And the company admitted that it was outsourced to another country, and that they didn't have the news coverage, so no one thought to look up why that word was trending.
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