Correcting a mis-tweet

Anyone who has ever had a conversation knows that despite our best attempts to speak clearly and listen carefully, the exchange of information is not always clear. Whether we’re talking to a cousin, a friend or a customer, the message we want to deliver doesn’t always arrive intact — sometimes we say things wrong; sometimes what we say is misinterpreted. And it seems to be happening more often in the online space as the immediacy and brevity of communication can tempt users to put less critical thought into their actions.

The potential to be misunderstood – or misunderstand others – shouldn’t drive us to logout forever. Rather, it should motivate us to strategically examine what we say and, when misinterpretations and mistakes do occur, move quickly to fix and own them.

A Cautionary Tale

Recently, an Agency lost its largest client in a very public way. A tweet made out of anger by one of the firm’s employees resulted in the loss of their largest client, and negative media attention to boot.

The Issue: The long-awaited release of the game “Duke Nukem Forever” put a lot of pressure on all parties involved in the launch – including the publisher and their PR team — to promote the game and generate buzz. Apparently it raised expectations of the product too, so when years of hard work solicited nasty reviews from gaming and tech reporters, parties close to home took it personally and hit back.

The Response: Feeling like ‘a father trying to protect his son’, the Agency, who was handling the media outreach for the launch, went public on Twitter with complaints towards the journalists who negatively reviewed the game, promising to blacklist those who wrote particularly unfavourable reviews.

The Result: Twitter apologies were quick and plentiful, but the Agency’s tweet continued to generate additional tweets. The firm flagged the issue with their client and, in an attempt to shut it all down, proactively contacted the media to discuss the incident and apologize. This actually alerted media previously unaware of the situation, generating even more coverage and resulting in the client taking its business elsewhere.

It’s not the first time an individual or a company has made a big mis-tweet.  Just the other day, Roger Ebert shared his thoughts on the death of “Jackass” cast member Ryan Dunn, resulting in a backlash from the online community. Thoughts shared online have caused other agencies to lose clients in the past, and companies to lose customers – remember Kenneth Cole’s unfortunate war-related tweet. It happens. But it doesn’t have to end badly.

Four Rules of the Road

Here are four rules based on the above example that companies can use to help fix an online mistake:

1. Count to 10 - Conversation is not always kind, so when responses are posted in the form of conflicting viewpoints and even downright insults, step back. Take a breath. You don’t need to respond immediately. Take the time to develop a response that will calmly and accurately address the responder’s concern, and represent your company in a good light.
2. Apologize to the right person - It is important to proportionately respond to an issue. In this case, the Agency took an online issue and made it mainstream when they should have looked to manage the scale of the issue such as deleting the tweet, apologizing broadly via their account and reaching out directly to the people who mentioned it. Make sure you’re reaching out to followers directly and through the channels where they are already engaged. If further follow up is needed, agree to move the conversation to a channel that allows for full discussion. You might not always be able to, but you should try.
3. Own the mistake – it’s already got your name on it - The Agency did the right thing by owning up to the mis-tweet. Ignoring a mistake does not fix anything, and neither does deleting legitimate complaints; you’re setting yourself up for a steep trek back to a place of trust. Once you’re able to approach the subject objectively, do so. Engage in the discussion, share correct information, provide context to support your viewpoint, and welcome the comments that, although perhaps not kind, might help you think in a new way about your business.
4. Maintain the trust you’ve earned - The more your followers trust you, the less they may challenge the information you share, meaning, the more careful you need to be to ensure misleading information doesn’t live in your online properties.  Listen carefully, and respond to potential issues early to proactively address pending problems.