It takes a lifetime to build a brand’s reputation and only one tweet to destroy it.
I know it may have been a community manager who tweeted it out, who may or may not have been happy in their job. But it shows the significance selecting who you put in the community manager’s chair.
Your social media community managers are your online brand ambassador. It’s a big deal.
Kitchen Aid’s Head, Cynthia Soledad responded immediately to limit the damage to the brand on Twitter. But the reputation damage was done. More significantly for Kitchen Aid the damage was probably done in their target audience. Here are a few things you can put in place to limit the possibility of this happening and what to do if it does happen.
1. Have a job description which clearly articulates a community managers responsibilities.
2. Have a social media policy. This will clearly articulate what they can do and can’t do.
3. Have a crisis communication plan in place. Beyond twitter. You need to act quickly. I checked Kitchen Aid’s website and there were no updates to their press room. (Hint give a senior spokesperson access to your twitter account very quickly)
Now it’s only one tweet and the person got fired. Perspective is a good thing. But imagine if this happened at your church or non-profit. What would you do? When would you even find out? Here are some more great examples of an online meltdowns and errors.
What examples have you seen of tweets gone wrong, and do you think that KitchenAid have handled it well or can do anything differently?
