Social Media is Managed by Humans: DiGiorno Pizza Tweet and Recovery

We have all seen it- the inappropriate tweet from a major brand and then the fallout from angry followers. It is often blamed on the account being hacked or is deleted and not acknowledged. In the case of Entenmann’s, they jumped on the hashtag #notguilty without realizing it was in reference to Casey Anthony’s acquittal. The backlash on Twitter was fast and furious and Entenmann’s responded by leaving Twitter for years. For years, they abandoned a marketing channel and the opportunity to converse with their customers instead of taking ownership for a mistake and moving on.

A million apologies. Did not read what the hashtag was about before posting.

— DiGiorno Pizza (@DiGiornoPizza) September 9, 2014

I have to point out the obvious- human beings manage social media. We reward the quick witted teams that jump on opportunities to be smart and funny and in the moment. It is inevitable that mistakes will happen and that it is really about how they are handled that can make all the difference. It is a huge responsibility to represent a brand in real time. There is no opportunity to present a storyboard or review copy for weeks with a team if you are hoping to interact with the world “in the moment.” I love that the DiGiorgno social media manager has responded in a human way, with individual apologies to those that were offended. It must have been a long stressful night, but I think everyone should take this experience and learn from it as a best practice for managing social media mistakes.