During the last 2 weeks, much has been written about Twitter‘s huge role in the demonstrations taking place in Egypt.  But now, a most unfortunate tweet by (of all things) a famous American fashion designer has caused an uproar in the world of social media.

It all started with a simple post on Thursday, February 3.

The ironic thing about this tweet is that it came directly from Kenneth Cole personally, not a social media manager.  We know it came from the man himself since it was marked with a “KC”.

Wouldn’t you have loved to witness that conversation when some lower level person told the boss, “Ummmm, about that tweet you wrote…”  I guess the easiest way would have been to show him these two tweets:

So, KC ate some humble pie and left this tweet:

Apparently, those in Twitterverse weren’t impressed by this non-apology apology, and was soon followed up by unpleasant responses.

With the speed of the Internet, Twitter hashtags were created and Kenneth Cole instantly became a joke:

And here’s one for the Trekkies out there:

This was quickly becoming a PR nightmare.  In an effort to fend off criticism, Kenneth Cole posted this on his Facebook page.

He also removed the offensive tweet, but that didn’t matter since it had been RT’d countless times and was now the stuff of social media legend.  Even so, his Facebook wall was quickly inundated with negative comments, including this scathing comment:

Some people actually made some supportive posts on his wall, telling him an apology wasn’t necessary.  Kenneth made a final effort to defuse the situation with this post on his Facebook page.

I’m sure he was really hoping those of us in the social media world with our notoriously short attention spans would allow this issue to die.  However, the whole story spawned a plethora of articles, analyzing Kenneth Cole’s gaffe and soundly chastising him for his poor judgment.

This whole story leads to this question: Is constant political correctness required of those who use social media to sell our products and services?

I’ve always been of the mindset that negative posts should not necessarily be removed automatically… they should be responded to and the issues addressed.  After all, the customer with a problem that has been resolved is more loyal than the customer who never had a problem at all.  This approach can lead customers to see that you care about their concerns and can even lead other fans to jump on the bandwagon in your support.

While Kenneth Cole did receive some messages of support, this one tweet couldn’t possibly have been worth the hassle.

So my advice is to create some kind of  litmus test before posting anything.  Here’s mine: I teach religious school to 5th graders and before I post anything, I always think, “What if their parents show my Facebook page to my students?  Would I want my 5th graders to see what I just wrote?”  While that cuts out anything even the least bit dirty and most things political, it tends to keep me out of trouble.  That doesn’t mean my Facebook page is bland and boring, just “clean.”

As a post-script to the Kenneth Cole tweet debacle, last night his name was back on Twitter as a code word for “tasteless commercialism”.  Voiced by actor Timothy Hutton, Groupon used a Super Bowl commercial which showed people in Tibet that live hard lives and their culture is in jeopardy… “but they still whip up an amazing fish curry and since 200 of us bought a Groupon.com, we’re each getting $30 worth of Tibetan food for just $15 at Himalayan Restaurant in Chicago.”   Here’s the response on Twitter:

Sigh.  Don’t worry Kenneth Cole, we’ll soon forget about your tweet.  In the meantime, please try not to put your foot in it again.

Related articles

• Kenneth Cole Just Capitulated And Removed Its Offensive Tweet (businessinsider.com)
• Learning From Kenneth Cole’s Social Media Mistake (hubspot.com)

• Kenneth Cole Apologizes for ‘Absolutely Inappropriate’ Egypt Tweet (blogs.forbes.com)
• Learning From Kenneth Cole’s Social Media Mistake (hubspot.com)
• Kenneth Cole’s Twitter Fail (mediabistro.com)

Related articles

• Kenneth Cole Apologizes for ‘Absolutely Inappropriate’ Egypt Tweet (blogs.forbes.com)
• Learning From Kenneth Cole’s Social Media Mistake (hubspot.com)
• Kenneth Cole’s Twitter Fail (mediabistro.com)