Epic PR Fail: How Not To Use Twitter To Insult Your Big Clients

I feel really bad for this guy, and I think we’ve all fired off some off the cuff words into the intertubes only to have them come boomeranging back at us.

However, it’s worth noting that this sad tale starts with a disparaging tweet sent from the airport on the way to a client. To educate them about social media.

It’s a story about a PR account executive/vice president named James Andrews from Ketchum in Atlanta who flew to Memphis to visit FedEx, one of the agency’s biggest clients. Andrews’ mission was to — now, this is important — talk with the corporate communications people at FedEx about social media.

Upon landing in Memphis, Andrews posted this message on the popular social media, mini-blogging service, Twitter, that’s widely followed by business people worldwide:

“True confession but I’m in one of those towns where I scratch my head and say, ‘I would die if I had to live here.’”

Andrews (right) openly used his Twitter monicker – @keyinfluencer.  Someone inside FedEx was following Andrews, and that person shared the post among the top executives at the FedEx front office, and the company’s corporate communications staff. At that point, a person in the FedEx corporate communications staff apparently took umbrage to the post by Andrews and responded…

Ouch. There are lots of lessons to be learned here. If you can’t say anything nice online, think twice about saying anything at all. Don’t say anything you don’t want your biggest, most important client to read. And if you’re caught out in a moment of bad judgment, fix it as quickly as you broke it!

How Not to be a Key Online Influencer | David Henderson – author, journalist.

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