US Airways and the terrible, no-good, very bad tweet



This Monday morning was your typical start of the day for any public relations student I know. Nothing too out of the ordinary came about. Personally, I went to my first class, prepared for a presentation, presented that presentation, and then returned to my seat. As I sat in my Ethics class full of public relations and advertising students, I decided to check Twitter and see what was news for the day.

            It was nearly 3 o’clock when  I saw tweets regarding US Airways tweeting something inappropriate. Oh, big deal! Probably a hoax or rumor. I decided to check US Airways account to see if this was a true event and sure enough they have tweeted an apology regarding the tweet and have removed said tweet.

            My next instinct, like anyone else, is to go find this tweet. Someone in the Twitter world had to screenshot it for the rest of us. They couldn’t leave us all in the dark and hog the excitement to themselves! I search US Airways and there is already several articles regarding the tweet with this “inappropriate” photo. Most articles have it blurred and other Twitter users took the courtesy of just tweeting the graphic picture outright.

            Obviously I refuse to post this photo on my blog, go look it up if you haven’t seen it but you have been warned.

            My reasoning for making my blog this week about this tweet is to discuss public relations crises such as this one. I also feel the need to post some hilarious responses to the incident as well, just for fun.

            When I first saw the tweet and read the apology I wasn’t sure how I would react as someone representing this company after something like that. The first thing I would do is apologize immediately. People were obviously offended and upset, a lot of people were even more upset the tweet had been up for quite a while. So, first action to take is issue that apology.

Some people and organizations seem to think that waiting until the commotion has died down is the better response. I think that apologizing first and as soon as possible is a better response. This shows you are aware of the incident, it was a mistake and that actions are being taken to fix it.

 

Photo courtesy  of yahoo.com

This is what US Airways did. They apologized and updated the public on the current state of the incident. I thought they did right by issuing the apology and letting everyone know they were doing something about it by investigating.

Next, I would investigate and update the public on the situation as it unfolds. It turns out this tweet was an honest mistake by an employee who removed the post as soon as they realized what they had done. For your entertainment, I thought I would post these tweets I found later in the afternoon the day the tweet went out:

 

It has come out that the link to the graphic photo was in a link from a previous user who had tagged the airline in a tweet. The employee had reported the tweet and accidentally used that link when replying to another user about sending in comments or reviews to the airline.

That poor employee has probably had the worst week ever. But don’t worry, they are getting to keep their job for this honest mistake! A day ago, I read numerous articles about statements from US Airways regarding them keeping their employee and forgiving them of this accident. Here is a recent article I found about keeping the employee.

Don’t you wish most companies were like this? If they had fired the employee even though they admitted it was an honest accident I could see the public being enraged. I think this was just another smart move by US Airways during this crazy week for them.

 

Common Mistakes on Social Media Posts

In the field of public relations, we are all pretty much aware of the ever-growing social media world. News breaks through social media, companies gain information regarding their customers’ feeling toward their products, and often times you can reach someone in a company through their Twitter account instead of waiting for your customer complaint to go through. 

Most companies and organizations have caught up with the trend and realized the benefits of social media and free promotion and marketing through the various mediums. When companies use social media to promote or even just keep their brand out there, they have to follow some general guidelines of social media use for PR and marketing. 

Most of these are common mistakes that anyone in control of a organization or big name’s social media account could easily make, which in turn can result in no one wanting to follow you anymore or just create a negative image of the company you are representing. 

Chances are we’ve all made them on our own account already, but keeping these in mind can help you to give the best promotional social media campaign. 

1. Not being aware of your surroundings- We’ve all tweeted at times when we probably shouldn’t have. You never want to be the person that tweeted at a time when the content you posted would be considered inappropriate or even offensive. One example of this is when #Aurora was trending on Twitter due to the theater shooting in Aurora. Soon after, Celeboutique wasn’t aware of the shooting and sent out this tweet. 

Yikes, imagine what people were thinking when they saw this and actually were aware of the tragedy that had just occurred. Whatever you do, be aware of your surroundings and what might be happening in the world to be sure you don’t upset more than just your followers. 

2. Posting at the wrong times- Aside from inappropriate timing when it comes to posting, it is also a common mistake to post when basically no one will see it or react to it.  You are trying to promote and make people see you, so knowing the best times to post on social media will really come in handy. Here’s a tip: mid-afternoon Friday is the best time to have a tweet be seen.

3.Overloading with worthless content- Quality should be over quantity. Don’t just post on social media because you think people need to see your name or account. Post material that will actually attract your followers and fans. 

4. Blasting similar content on various mediums- We all know there are dashboards out there for managing different types of social media at one time. But using these dashboards to post the exact same thing on your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other media is a sure way to make your fans and followers see you as being lazy. You should know the different language and audience that each platform has. Be sure the content you’re posting to these are appropriate for the people that may see it. Twitter only gives you 140 characters so you should make them count. Don’t waste it by matching it to your LinkedIn audience. 

5. Automated messages- Don’t you hate when you see that organization post the same thing every morning at the same time? Seems a bit like spam, doesn’t it? No one is interested in a robot running the content on an account. It’s much more interesting and engaging when there is a real person running the account and interacting with it’s followers. Engaging in tweetchats and using hashtags is one way to get even more noticed and appreciated for not using the typical automated dashboard post. 

6. Failure to proofread- Sure, a few misspelled words or grammar mistakes happen. But when you are writing correctly to your audience, your message gets across to them much better! We don’t want the mistake of someone calling you out on your own mistake and all your followers and fan base see it. It just makes things awkward. Proofread, or you could walk into an awkward situation such as this one. 

Not gonna lie, this one made even me squirm. Both of these bands are my favorites and it broke my heart to watch a squabble happen over Twitter regarding the proper “roll call” phrase. Avoid this by proofreading and save us all the pain of witnessing it. 

7. Information overload- With the fast paced world we live in, no one wants to sit there and read the same information over and over again. Everyone has their lives to get back to, or has some other tweet or post to go read. Get to the point!

And with the last tip on the list being to hurry up and get the point across, that’s what I got for you guys tonight. Hope everyone can benefit from this little list of common errors made on social media!