Happy Birthday Twitter! March 21, marked five years since the very first tweet was sent and since then some 30 billion tweets have been tweeted. In its five years of existence, we’ve seen the social media platform really evolve. Not long ago, many people didn’t know anything about Twitter except that Ashton Kutcher was obsessed with it. Now, Twitter is not just an outlet for personal random thoughts and rants, businesses are beginning to capitalize on it. Links are now present in 25% of tweets, showing that the Twitter platform is really effective at spreading real-time information. In fact, it is now the fastest growing search engine in the world.
But with the good always comes the bad. A setback of this very user-friendly, in essence, megaphone, is that it compels users to share thoughts, pictures, rants, etc., and sometimes these off the chart tweets are best suited for the ‘delete’ button. Below is a list of some of the most well known Twitter mishaps. Bet these people were asking, “where’s the delete button?”
Ragan’s PR Daily put together a list of 8 blunders on Twitter from years past, here are a few:
- Jeffrey Cox. The former Indiana deputy attorney general was fired for suggesting via Twitter that Wisconsin’s riot police should use live ammo to clear out protestors at the capitol.
- Kenneth Cole. The fashion designer tweeted during the uprising in Cairo “Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online at http://bit.ly/KCairo – KC.” After the tweet was posted, a widespread uproar occurred on Twitter for Cole’s insensitivity to a very serious situation.
- Chrysler. An employee of Chrysler’s social media agency tweeted on Chrysler’s account “I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to [expletive] drive.” The employee thought it was his personal account. It cost him a job and his firm the account.
Some more noteworthy mishaps with a price tag:
- Mark Cuban. Owner of Dallas Mavericks criticized the referees in a Mavericks-Denver Nuggets game in a frustrated tweet. The Mavericks lost and Cuban tweeted: “How do they not call a tech on JR Smith for coming off the bench to taunt our player on the ground?” Cuban was fined by the National Basketball Association $25,000 for his comments on Twitter.
- Chad Ochocinco. The NFL fined Ochocinco $25,000 for posting messages on Twitter during the Cincinnati Bengals’ game against the Philadelphia Eagles. “Man I’m sick of getting hit like that, it’s the preseason [expletive]! 1 day I’m gone jump up and start throwing hay makers, #tylenolplease.”