The KitchenAid Tweet and Social Media Policies

By now, you have probably read about the KitchenAid tweet that was sent moments after President Obama talked about his grandmother during last night’s debate.  The tweet:

"Obamas gma even knew it was going 2 b bad! 'She died 3 days b4 he became president'."  Within nanoseconds, the tweet went viral.

KitchenAid immediately pulled the tweet, and apologized online.  Here is its Facebook post:

"Hello, everyone. My name is Cynthia Soledad, and I am the head of the KitchenAid brand. I would like to personally apologize to President Barack Obama, his family and everyone on Twitter for the offensive tweet sent earlier. It was carelessly sent in error by a member of our Twitter team who, needless to say, won't be tweeting for us anymore. That said, I take full responsibility for my team. Thank you for hearing me out."

To me, it is a great response…immediate…honest…apologetic…accepting responsibility.  It is really an excellent example of how to respond to a blunder.   My only question is to the statement that the tweeter “needless to say, won’t be tweeting for us anymore.”  Does that mean the tweeter was fired (my hope) or merely reassigned?  Can’t find anything definitive on that.  If you know, please share.

This reminds us again of the power of social media, and the inherent danger of abusing that power. You can have the best social media policies in the world, but if somebody wants to break them, he or she will.  But it does remind us of the importance of having, and then enforcing, a social media policy.  Such a policy should be put in employee manuals and signed by all employees.  Such a policy should be put in employee manuals and signed by all employees.  The policy should::

       1. Clearly state the objectives of the organization’s social media program.

       2. Clearly state who can post on the company’s social media sites (a very small number). 
 3. Clearly indicate if you are not a listed poster, you can't post.

         4. List in great detail the types of posts allowable. 
 5. Indicate that the policy extends to employees’ personal social media pages.    
 6. State what employees can and cannot say about the organization on those pages.

       7. State the penalty for violating the policy (first offense termination sounds reasonable)

    
 Of course, you should check with your legal counsel in preparing this policy.

 

What did you think of KitchenAid’s handling of this?