Death By Twitter: #HasJustineLandedYet

Nothing kills the holiday cheer like another Death By Twitter.

You know, we’ve talked about the “Death By Twitter” rampage lately.  And a lot of the tweets have left us confused, wondering if reactions are overly emotional or if the tweet is, in fact, completely inappropriate.

Well, friends, every once in awhile someone tweets something that throws all confusion out the window- other than the thought of “What in the WORLD were they thinking!”.  That is the case with Justine Sacco and her tweet about Africa.  Warning before reading on, this is offensive.

Why?  Why would you EVER think that was okay to say?  Here’s the real kicker.  Not only is this totally inappropriate, but this woman KNOWS better.  Sacco was (yeah, I say WAS because she has since been fired) the PR executive for the Internet conglomerate InterActive Corporation.  You may not have heard of the company, but you’ve certainly heard of all the businesses they own including Match.com and Dictionary.com and Vimeo.  A PUBLIC RELATIONS EXECUTIVE! Wow.

So, Sacco has written an official apology.  She is “ashamed” and was “insensitive to the crisis”.  All the right things to say when apologizing.  But, I just need to share this one part of the statement that still irks me.  It reads: “Unfortunately, it is terribly easy to be cavalier about an epidemic that one has never witnessed firsthand.”

WHAT?  No it’s not.  Sorry, Sacco but I don’t buy it.  There are epidemics that I have never witnessed firsthand that I would never, NEVER, be cavalier about.  Think about it.  I’ve never witnessed a massive flood or earthquake.  I’ve never witnessed mass starvation or poverty.  School shootings, hurricanes, the list goes on and on.  But my heart still goes out to those affected, though I am sure their pain is far greater than I may know.  So I don’t buy the whole “ignorance” claim here.  It just gets under my skin. 

Yet, in the redemption we find through the holiday spirit, some good can come out of this too!  Leave it to the Twittersphere to find a way!  A fake Facebook account under her name has been created where a post links to www.JustineSacco.com, which brings up a donation page for Aid for Africa.

I like that.  And I also very much respect the official statement of InterActive Corporation, who fired Sacco but spoke of forgiveness when speaking of her.  The company stated: “There is no excuse for the hateful statements that have been made and we condemn them unequivocally.  We hope, however, that time and action, and the forgiving human spirit, will not result in the wholesale condemnation of an individual who we have otherwise known to be a decent person at core.”

It is good to see love and forgiveness reign in the end, huh?  After all, that is what the holiday spirit is all about.

Death By Twitter: Rules & Lessons

My continuing editions of "Death By Twitter" have seen all types of fatalities due to stupid, offensive or otherwise not-so-Tweetable Tweets.  Whether it be a sports mascot, an Olympic athlete or a kitchen appliance, the Twittersphere  finds victims in all areas.

It seems the holidays is not turning out any differently.  Last week was particularly harsh on the world of social media. There have been severalfaux pas on Twitter the past week, from Nikki Finke's (Entertainment journalist and founder of Deadline.com) tweet following the death of Nelson Mandela that read...

to SpaghettiO's Pearl Harbor commemoration...

  

While I feel these are on two opposite ends of the spectrum, I want to take a different approach this "Death By Twitter" entry.  Instead of detailing the stories of Nikki Finke and SpaghettiO's and the backlash they received, let's try to take away a lesson.  While the tweets seem different in sentiment, they do have something in common.  Each took a tragic event and made it about something else.  Promotion.  While inserting your brand into a current event has proved viable for some (Oreo!!)  when war, famine or death are involved, it's safe to say that making the event about your brand is not wise. 

Use that rule of thumb when thinking about posting to commemorate events or pay respects.  After all, showing selflessness, even in something as small as a tweet, can go a long way.

What other "Rule Of Thumb" do you see playing out in Twittersphere?