“It takes years to build trust, seconds to break and forever to rebuild.”
– Anonymous
I’m a little hesitant to post this story because it’s almost every company’s nightmare and the excuse I hear most frequently for not embracing social media marketing. Last week, Kansas City Chiefs football team fan Travis Wright was “not impressed” that his team lost 40 – 24 to the Falcons. And he let all of his Twitter followers know about it.
When he accused team owner Clark Hunt of being cheap, a team employee with the keys to their Twitter account sent Wright a private message saying, “Would help if you had your facts straight. Your choice to be a fan. cc get a clue” But here’s the problem with the Internet (which I tell my own kids almost every week): There is no such thing as a private message!
If Wright was not impressed with the Chiefs’ performance, he was even less impressed with the direct message. He grabbed a screen shot and posted it to Reddit:
And, as you probably guessed by now, Twitter exploded. The @kcchiefs account lit up like a Christmas tree with vicariously offended fans. The chatter became so loud, he was even interviewed by KSHB in Kansas City. Not content to simply light themselves on fire, the Chiefs felt inclined to add some gasoline. He told them, “The funny thing about [the apology] is that I personally didn’t see it,” Wright said. “They didn’t apologize to me, they apologized to everyone else because of the backlash.”
I apologize to the fans for my response to a tweet sent to me earlier. No excuse for my actions. I am truly sorry and it won’t happen again.
— Kansas City Chiefs (@kcchiefs) September 11, 2012
The Internet is written in ink, folks. But rather thank give you the obvious, worn-out advice you would normally read from someone like me, I’ll share one of my favorite public relation wins on Twitter.
I was on a social media panel at the annual American Water Works Association show last year, where I had the pleasure of listening to Alan Heymann who is the Chief of Public Affairs for DC Water. He gave a fantastic presentation on how they were using Facebook and Twitter to engage with customers and improve customer service. One such “engagement” with a ratepayer illustrates how organizations can transform critics into fans:
If I’m not mistaken, DC Water is giving out water bottles at this ANC training. Your ratepayer dollars at work.
@meitweet We believe encouraging the public, including elected officials, to choose tap over bottled is a great use of ratepayer dollars.
Civic engagement win. RT @mydcwater: @meitweet We believe encouraging the public to choose tap over bottled is great use of ratepayer $.
Rather than lashing out, DC Water explained their reasoning. As you can see, they were not only able change the person’s mind but to convert them to a fan and gain additional exposure.
Too bad the Chiefs’ PR department didn’t see Allan’s presentation.
