Being from the Detroit area, when asked to discuss a corporate social media blunder, the one that immediately came to my mind was Chrysler’s Twitter mishap of 2011.
Chrysler, like many large corporations, decided that once they dove into the world of social media, it would be more beneficial to outsource their social media updating to a company called New Media Strategies (NMS). Though it saved them having to keep people on payroll to handle social media affairs, a negative side to outsourcing was seen clearly when Chrysler was caught as off guard as the public when a lewd tweet was posted from Chrysler’s Twitter handle, @ChryslerAutos. The original tweet can be seen in the photo below:
Chrysler hastily took the tweet down, replacing the offensive tweet with: “Our apologies — our account was compromised earlier today. We are taking steps to resolve it.” They elaborated on the events that lead to the Twitter mishap, stating in their blog that: “an inappropriate comment was issued from the Chrysler brand Twitter handle, @ChryslerAutos, via our social media agency of record, New Media Strategies (NMS). After further investigation, it was discovered that the statement was issued by an NMS employee, who has since been terminated.”
Later on it was revealed that Chrysler’s Twitter account was the responsibility of a single employee, who posted to Chrysler’s Twitter instead of his personal account. There are multiple basic social media mistakes here:
#1: NMS should not have assigned the account to just one employee. Chrysler is also slightly to blame, for not having someone from their corporation on the account as well. Having multiple people on a social media account is a safeguard for the account holder as well as those running the account, in case a mistake like this one is made.
#2: Not tweeting on the go for a corporation may also be a good guideline to follow. Social media is instantaneous, and if you are rushing about attempting to do 7 things at once as well as Tweet, you may tweet on the wrong account- as in this case- or perhaps something as small as a spelling error. Big or small, errors on a corporate account you are paid to update is unacceptable.
#3: Letting a third party company in general control your corporations social media account. A corporations social media account is a digital extension of who they are, just like personal accounts. Not only is this an issue if a person only gets their news from social media (which is actually the voice of another company, not your own, and who knows what they are saying every second of the day), but outsourcing your “online self” isn’t genuine to your customers.
So corporations, spend the extra buck and hire on your own social media experts. It will save you hassle and face in the long run.
I agree that making errors on an account you are paid to tweet from is unacceptable. However, it happens and that needs to be kept in mind when giving a person that responsibility. It is very easy to tweet from the wrong account when you have multiple ones. Having a private company tweet for you is a bad idea, but they may not take the job as seriously. This factor should be carefully thought out before the company is hired.
Mistakes like this do happen. I control multiple accounts and I have unfortunately come across tweeting from the wrong account. But, with an account the size of Chrysler’s…It’s completely unacceptable to have accounts so closely linked together that a mistake like this could happen.
I think this story ties in with a point made in the “Why a 23-year-old Should Not Run Your Social Media” article we read last week – “always keep the keys.” This debacle could have been avoided, or at least solved in a quicker manner, if Chrystler had a series of checks and balances in place for their social media. I think that having one sole person in charge of a huge, corporate Twitter account (you point #1) is the biggest blunder made here.
I think this is a very common yet careless mistake made by the person in charge of Chrysler’s twitter account. I understand that it is easy to forget to switch accounts and tweet off the wrong account, but if you are in charge of a large corporations twitter account you must be cautious in everything you tweet. Because any mistake like this one can have a huge negative impact on a company.
I agree that Chrysler should have given the social media role to more than just one person. Them trying to save money back fired and kinda proves that you can’t cut cost on important things like a social media representative. I think that this relates back to the last article we read on 23-year-olds running company social sites. Older people don’t really take social media too seriously and only use it because they had to hop on the band wagon which is probably why they thought only one person could handle it and they were wrong. I also don’t think that employee should have been fired over this. It was an accident and the people in Detroit can’t drive! Isnt there a highway that does’nt have a speed limit?
For a company as big as Chrysler, they should not outsource their social media, as stated above. It’s just so obvious. Why put a precious tool into the literal hands of someone who doesn’t know the inner workings of yoru company? It’s sad to know that this guy’s career is probably shot because of this one tweet. I feel the social media realm may be a bit too high-strung at times. Should the guy have been fired? Maybe. Should he be blacklisted? No. His job performance should be monitered for a year, but his career should not be over.