Why you should think before giving your execs the Twitter keys
It was a bad week for executives on Twitter, with Kenneth Cole putting his foot in his mouth (again) with a comment about Syria, and Business Insider’s chief technology officer blasted on Twitter as a bigot.
After U.S. Pentagon spokesman George Little stated there will be no “boots on the ground” in Syria, Cole tweeted, “‘Boots on the ground’ or not, let’s not forget about sandals, pumps and loafers.” The tweet echoed Cole’s last blunder in 2011, a joke suggesting riots in Egypt were caused by a retail sale – a tweet that came directly from the designer.
Cole wasn’t the only executive raked over the social coals this week, though. Pax Dickinson, Business Insider’s CTO, was taken to task for a series of tweets that were roundly criticized as racist, homophobic and sexist.
Dickinson defended his comments on Twitter but Business Insider severed ties, likely wanting to minimize the damage to its own brand, and released a statement that Dickinson is “no longer with the company.”
Both serve as a reminder that executives may not be the best voice for a brand on social media.
As Scott Stratten, president of Oakville, Ontario’s UnMarketing, told Marketing recently, “Somebody who has been insulated by layers of yes men and PR people probably shouldn’t have unfiltered access to the general public.”
Nokia mocks Apple and Samsung on Twitter
Nokia was able to steal some of Apple’s thunder Tuesday during the brand’s highly anticipated iPhone press conference. The brand’s U.K.-based Facebook and Twitter accounts posted an ad featuring its colourful line of Lumia phones and the text, “Imitation is the best form of flattery,” with the caption “Thanks #Apple :),” suggesting the new colourful iPhones are a rip off.
It’s not the first time the brand has posted fighting words in the U.K., either. Just last week it posted a picture of a broken Samsung Galaxy phone at the height of the buzz about the new Android KitKit operating system.
TIFF by the numbers
Press and celebs flocked to Toronto this week for the Toronto International Film Festival, a top-tier film festival and one of the biggest arts sponsorship opportunities in Canada (Click here for Marketing’s TIFF sponsorship coverage). Unsurprisingly, it also generated a steady stream of noise on social media.
Here’s some stats on the social impressions made during TIFF, via the Salesforce Marketing Cloud (from 12 p.m., Sept. 4 until 12 p.m., Sept. 9).
• The top mentioned film was 12 Years a Slave with almost 10,000 mentions, followed by Dallas Buyers Club and Gravity (sentiment was mostly neutral or positive)
• The most tweeted hashtag was #tiff13 followed by #prisoners
• The top five most mentioned celebrities in order were: Benedict Cumberbatch (almost 7,500 mentions), Michael Fassbender (almost 6,000 mentions), Brad Pitt (almost 6,000 mentions), Hugh Jackman (almost 3,500 mentions) and Kate Winslet (almost 3,000 mentions)
• Females accounted for 60% of the conversations vs. 40% for males; 25-34 year olds accounted for 43% of the conversations
