How Not to Use Twitter for Business?
This is an excellent example of how not to use Twitter for business. Clearly the operator of the @Cinnamon_D6 Twitter account was exasperated at the perceived abuse being thrown at him or her and got a little bit carried away in their tweet.
More examples of How Not to Use Twitter for Business!
The problem with isnt so much the poorly chosen language in the tweet but the potential for that poor tweet to go viral in a matter of hours.
In fairness, in this case, the customer was sending some constructive criticism and a little bit of personal opinion added in. The customer was clearly left frustrated by the turn of events when he visited Cinnamon in Dublin. He wanted his opinion to be heard so he tweeted about it and someone at Cinnamon’s end did not like what was sent and go carried away. The Result – the tweet with the offending language made its way to millions of people and Cinnamon had to issue an apology.
Having made the apology Cinnamon did not include a link to their Facebook page further alienating their Twitter audiences. So in 1 day, Cinnamon Tweets have offended their Twitter followers twice (actually 3 times – see list below) – both time unintentionally (one hopes) but the reality is that the damage to the brand name is done.
So lets recap
- Mistake 1 – Using abusive language in a Tweet in reply to a customer comment – a BIG NO NO!!
- Mistake 2 – Further replies sent to the customer with a sarcastic and derogatory tone
- Mistake 3 – Issue an apology on one social medium but not link it to another social medium
Differentiate your Followers
Twitter and Facebook are 2 different channels and should be treated separately. Twitter is great for shouting out your message hoping that it will get sent around the world and someone will listen while FB is a more social medium allowing you to interact with customers. In this case Cinnamon, tweeted about an apology with no link and the apology was published on FB.
What makes this a problem
- Your Twitter following is looked after promptly
- You are driving traffic to your parent website – people will see other things you have on your website when they visit it to read the apology.