Proof of the need to constantly keep your image, your mission, and your audience in mind when posting to social media
It’s not entirely surprising to see brands getting too edgy or controversial as they compete to grab attention on social media, but one would hope for the folks running accounts belonging to government offices to be a bit more careful in what they share.
Well, hoping is not a crisis management strategy, as the British Embassy here in the U.S. discovered after sending this tweet Sunday:
Commemorating the 200th anniversary of burning the White House. Only sparklers this time! pic.twitter.com/QIDBQTBmmL
— British Embassy (@UKinUSA) August 24, 2014
As could be expected, this riled up a number of people. It might have been funnier if not for the ongoing threat of terrorism. The embassy quickly posted an apology, as well as sharing a post celebrating the two nations’ friendship by Britain’s deputy ambassador:
Apologies for earlier Tweet. We meant to mark an event in history & celebrate our strong friendship today https://t.co/gs3heJDMzt
— British Embassy (@UKinUSA) August 25, 2014
Clearly the post was meant to be in good fun, but it wasn’t hard to see that it would strike a nerve with more than a few people. Although this is not a major incident, it did no service to the mission of the @UKinUSA Twitter feed, and we’d guess the embassy is adjusting protocol as needed to help prevent future issues along these lines.
The BCM Blogging Team
https://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com