Social Media Marketing Best Practices In Twitter’s Open System
I recently dealt with an unfortunate situation where one of my tweets was retweeted with the link replaced by the retweeter, thus implying I was endorsing his site (otherwise known as “retweet hijacking.”) You may have read my post (which I have since taken down – read on to find out why.)
My first reaction was one of utter disbelief. How someone could so openly “hijack” a tweet and infer my endorsement without anyone noticing, I don’t know. Maybe it happens more often than I realized; this was my first experience – I’d never heard of it before.
I figured the best way to approach this situation was via DM (direct message), however – long story short – the matter seemed to get out of hand with a barrage of unpleasant DM’s and @ messages from the hijacker directed to me; I then chose to write a blog post about what happened.
I also chose to identify the tweet hijacker by name. This caused further controversy in the Twitterverse; over 60 comments were left on my post and though 90% of my community seemed to support the decision to out the hijacker, 10% didn’t. Fair enough.
My intent in highlighting this incident was to educate others as to some unethical practices going on in Twitter and to rally support in not allowing this kind of behavior.
Could I have achieved my objective without naming names? Yes. Would I have made different choices in retrospect? Possibly. The way I see it is this: Twitter is already an open system; we are all “out” whether we realize it or not.
It transpired that the person tweeting was a hired webmaster – to be the voice of a well-known, reputable company (I’ve since discovered).
A loyal customer got wind of the hijacking situation and alerted the company. The Assistant Vice President and President of the company contacted me directly. I ended up having a pleasant phone conversation with the President tonight. He was very apologetic, courteous and kind. I have a much better understanding for this company, their outreach and normal business practices.
As a gesture of goodwill, I assured the President I would edit my blog post to exclude his company’s name; however, I chose to take the entire post and all comments down instead. I’m grateful to all commenters who took the time to read my post and provide their valuable contribution.
What can we learn from this situation? Here’s what I believe:
- One very important lesson from this scenario is how vital it is to properly assess who is the voice and face of your company.
- Reputations need to be monitored rigorously by everyone from the solopreneur to Fortune 500 companies. (For the best book on managing – and repairing – reputations, see Radically Transparent by Andy Beal and Judy Strauss.)
- When there is a situation to deal with, do so quickly, courteously and effectively.
What are your thoughts? How would you react to someone intentionally hijacking/misrepresenting your tweets… or any message, for that matter? Do you think business best practices transcend all mediums and, if so, how do we uphold those practices in new media?
Nice resolution of your personal situation and it’s fantastic that you can share the learnings. While you may debate whether or not you should have named names, you have to realize it is because you did that you were able to achieve this result. The real downside to naming names? Like any other form of “bad press,” it brings even more attention to an entity that has not earned it.
Hi Mari,
I think you’ve handled the situation appropriately and professionally. When we hire others to be “our voice” we are responsible for what they say and do so points 1 & 2 are vital to all business owners in this regard.
Point 3 speaks to how we would like things to be handled but, as you experienced, not everyone follows that path. I’m a big believer in not letting how others treat me determine how I will treat others. By graciously removing the post and comments following your conversation with the President of the company, I think you’ve enhanced the “educational” experience for all and I’m sure the company is grateful for your compassionate response.
I wish that more people held the view that you don’t have to be dishonest and nasty to get ahead in business. Sadly, this has not been my experience, particularly lately. But, when I come across someone like yourself who is open, honest, service-oriented and sensible it absolutely restores my faith in humanity. Thank you for that!
In similar circumstances I favour confronting the person swiftly and directly in the hope reason, integrity and common sense will prevail. But, when it doesn’t, despite my best efforts, then I will share the truth for the benefit of others.
When bad behaviour is not outed, it’s as much as condoned. All actions have consequences. I take full responsibility for mine and expect others to do likewise.
That’s my 2 cents! Thanks for asking.
Linda M. Lopeke
The SMARTSTART Coach
This has been a very instructive event. Just like the Domino’s saga http://mashable.com/2009/04/15/youtube-fired/ and @GaryVee disappointing experience http://garyvaynerchuk.com/post/81529474/how-your-brand-can-be-effected-in-2009-and-its-impact the brand was damaged seemingly unwittingly. Each story highlights the need fo brands to have a Social Media listening capacity. However the less obvious lesson and maybe the big story might be the responsibility we in the ‘We Are The Media’ fold have to do things right.
Anyone with a blog, twitter account, youtube channel or social media presence has the potential to cause millions of dollars worth of damage o a brand. Just as a large percentage of the business world has not yet come to grips with operating in a world that includes Social Media, so too an enormous percentage of the Social Media world has yet to come to grips with the ethical and moral responsibilities that come with the power the hold.
The unfortunate unnamed web master employed by the now unnamed limo company my have been trying to provide for a growing family or support aging parents, most of us will never know. He/She had an idea that might create value for their employer, at some point you would hope that conscience might overcome ambition.
But as we are all prone to stumbling and falling now and then let’s all hope that our triumphs and not our shortfallings make the front page of Digg, et al.
Dean Powers last blog post..i have arrived…. – Byron Bay, Australia Travel Blog
Thanks Mari. This is nice.
Nice follow up, Mari. Not sure I would have taken the original post down, though I understand why you did it. There are lessons to be learned here for all who are using the web and social sites. Without naming names, the company in questions may not have learned of the “unethical” practices of their hired webmaster. This way they learned a good lesson and your fans, followers and readers have too.
Your comment about the need for managing our reputations is timely, Mari. I am working with John Assaraf, whose name and Twitter ID were hijacked and were being used by someone else. We asked Twitter to investigate, which they did, and John has the use of his name and his Twitter ID back. It took a bit of follow up and persistence but Twitter was very helpful once they determined this was an impostor.
Yet this morning one of his followers alerted us to another impersonation. Someone else using his photo as their avatar and the Twitter ID @succespartner. This individual is promoting “Facebook Money Making Mentors”,”Internet Entrepreneur Club” and something called “The Twitter Trick” and has 857 people following him right now. We have notified @succespartner that we are reporting the ID to Twitter and have Tweeted about the situation to John’s followers from his @OneCoach and @JohnAssaraf Twitter accounts (which really are his). We have submitted a request for an investigation to Twitter. John’s followers are retweeting his message vigorously. I am sure that this situation will be resolved but I feel for the people who have tricked into following an impostor and who have purchased products because they beleived the products were being endorsed by someone they admire and respect.
John’s situation provides another illustration of the importance of monitoring your reputation and responding quickly. It is important to know what is being said about you or your business so that you can take fast and appropriate action–what ever that is.
Finally, hijacking links and Tweets and impersonating others is wrong. Simply put but clearly stated.
Mari, I’m glad this got worked out, and it sounds like the limo company is fortunate to have loyal customers who keep an eye on the web. This could have turned out much worse for the company.
As a lesson for any business owner, set up a Google alert and a Twitter alert (using either TweetBeep, or TweetLater) to monitor your brand or any keyword associated with your company’s reputation. Doing so will help you avert a situation like this if a contractor or employee misrepresents your brand.
I’m a Twitter users who thinks it’s OK to have ghost writers, or contracted help to manage the social media aspects of a business. (I have differing opinions regarding personal branding and/or celebrities) but this is a classic example of how quickly things can go wrong if you don’t at least monitor the activity of whomever you have managing your social media (or any other web property for that matter)
In fact, I would recommend businesses use a service such as http://cotweet.com , this will allow multiple people to tweet from the same account. This way there is still transparency associated with Twitter. You can use someone else to manage your Twitter account, and you can set up more than one. Then ‘you’ can jump in at anytime to offer up personal messages from time to time. Your customers will LOVE you for it.
Mari, I commend you on the way you handled this and it appears to have ended on a positive note.
Best wishes … Scott
Scott Procks last blog post..Tweep Of The Day – @michaeldunlop
Hi Mari,
It’s not a surprise for me to discover such practices. As something good is out, there will always be people that will be ready to abuse the system, and Twitter is NOT an exception.
I think I also see a hijacking on my Tweet but didn’t pay too much attention since I’m not a big guru there, and I use Twitter only for communication.
Unfortunately I cannot give you a solution to this, but it said me to see these practices. And this comes from me and I know what I am talking about. I’m fighting now with a serious copyright infringement, as a jack a… stole my home page content. And you guess it, Google didn’t like it and
penalize me seriously.
Valeriu
It doesn’t surprise me that you removed the original post after discussing the matter with the company’s Pres/VP. You always treat people fairly and with respect, which is one of the reasons you received the outpouring of support that you did.
It is unfortunate that a respectable company’s reputation was tarnished, if even temporarily, because of the actions of one person who jumped onto the social media playing field, without first knowing the ‘rules of the game’.
If anything, this experience should give other leaders in the social media industry the opportunity to train their clients on what not to do on Twitter.
SharonMcP
Your story is a great lesson for all of us out here Mari! Thank you for being so candid and open about it. I sure can understand your reasons for taking the whole original post with comments down, and that goes to your outstanding integrity and your desire to teach the best and most honorable practices out there! I admire you for that and am so proud to be in your mentoring program!
We need more Maris out there!
Love and respect,
@kickofftopic