How not to run your Twitter account as alternative vote campaign rows with rivals
We should all be grateful to the Yes to AV campaign. This weekend it provided a case study reminder in exactly what not to do with your Twitter account as it ran into controversy after dropping Benjamin Zephaniah from its campaign material.
The Yes! To Fair Votes campaign replaced Britain’s most famous black poet on literature with ‘Blackadder’ actor and TV presenter Tony Robinson and then proceeded to row with opponents on Twitter.
The Alternative Vote Referendum is a highly contentious issue in what appears to be a close contest. The Yes and No to AV campaigns have both been battling hard, but the fundamentals of running campaigns, be they political or brand based, remain the same when it comes to social media. This becomes even more critical when in crises management mode.
On paper, as reported in the Guardian today, the Zephaniah story reflects poor on the Yes campaign. He was the only celebrity face to be replaced on leaflets delivered outside of London while the white ones (Joanna Lumley, Eddie Izzard, Colin Firth, Honor Blackman and Stephen Fry) remained. It seems to leave the yes campaign open to accusations of playing the race card
Terry Paul, a spokesman for the no campaign, told the Guardian: “Why are Yes to AV ashamed to have the support of Benjamin Zephaniah in places like Cornwall and Hampshire? The yes campaign’s leaflet offers a chilling preview of politics under the alternative vote. We have warned that AV would encourage parties to pander to extremist opinions in a chase for second and third preference votes, but we never imagined the first example of such outdated views would come from the yes campaign itself.”
Clearly, when rival supporters or customers come banging at your door wanting answers you are on the back foot. There is a natural inclination to become defensive. Simply put don’t. It is a rabbit hole that goes down and down.
But this is exactly what happened with the Yes campaign. It started responding by insulting people tweeting at it calling them “sad”, “silly” and “mathematically challenged”.
It then began throwing out question after question at its rivals and in the process stoked the race issue and the story surrounding the axing of Zephaniah from areas outside of London.
Reading tweets like “no I will ask the questions” is like watching a man with shovel dig and dig. All this helped ensure that some are still talking about the story this morning.
Most of us hopefully know by now that this is not how you respond to anyone via Twitter no matter how much you want to. Whether it is the combustible world of politics or the tough end of a customer service the rules of the game are the same. Of course, you should always respond, but be unfailing polite and provide the facts no matter what the circumstances.
As what ever your say if going to be read by others and in the worse case scenario it will be picked up by bloggers and main stream media and spin out of control.
Below are a few tips that I wrote last year after the The Washington Post got in a very public row that which resulted in a memo to staff after a reporter hit back at a critic on Twitter in a very similar manner to the Yes to Fairer votes campaign.
Gay rights group GLAAD had hit out at the Post on Twitter criticising a piece by anti-gay activist Tony Perkins and his theory on why gay teens get depressed. The Post’s official Twitter feed shot straight back saying that it was working “both sides” of the issue. GLAAD argued the Post was giving a voice to anti gay activists.
Six points for social media engagement
1. Do not ignore your critics. If you have put your brand into the social media space then you must engage and take part in the conversation. Your silence will be talked about and work against you.
2. Be friendly, respectful and open. Listen to what critics, readers customers are saying and make sure you hear. Then work out how best to respond.
3. Remain level headed and do not get annoyed and post an immediate response. Disaster this way lurks. It might only take a second or two to type a comment but it will be permanent. You might be able to delete a hasty response – but its content will be quickly recorded be it by text or screen grabs. Have some cool off time before you respond.
4. Remember who you represent when you respond. If you are tweeting or blogging in a work capacity you have a responsibility to your employer or brand.
5. Make sure you have the facts and know the issues before you respond. Do not shoot from the hip and hope you can bluff it. Remember these are public conversations.
6. Be prepared to admit when you are wrong and quick to correct mistakes. People like this and res pond well to it.
All Comments
I think the most important point you raise here is the need to recognise when you’ve made a mistake and rectify it. The campaign has damaged its reputation without a doubt and now needs to take productive steps to counteract its previous actions. Use Twitter to apologise.
You say: “It seems to leave the yes campaign open to accusations of playing the race card.”
“Playing the race card” means using race to make a political point against an oponent, normally to make an inference of racism against them. The Yes campaign are certainly not “playing the race card” in this instance. Rather they are playing the racism card: showing themselves to be bigoted, prejudiced and racist. They don’t want to have a black man in the literature for the home counties because they believe it will frighten the horses. This is how democratic the Yes campaign is. Vote no.
Don’t agree with your assessment here.
They did not call anyone ‘sad’, they said that ‘it is sad…’. Not the same.
They did not call anyone ‘silly’, they said they were ‘starting to look silly. Not the same.
‘Mathematically challenged’ was a statement of fact, as @PhilCane was indeed struggling with some simple maths.
You say they should ‘provide the facts’ – why don’t you take a leaf out of your own book first before criticising others?
The use of celebrities by the Yes campaign, Eddie Izzard and Colin Firth, was another major failing. Who cares! Not even most of those living in the “prgressive boroughs” of Camden, Hackney, Haringey and Islington (among others).
[...] How not to run your Twitter account as alternative vote campaign rows with rivals | The Wall Blog (tags: twitter tips politics) [...]
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