Chrysler’s firing of an outside agency after its profane faux pas Tweeting for the brand has set off a debate in the social-media industry about whether marketing departments or communications departments should be controlling the content of messages that go out on Facebook, Twitter and other outlets.
But in the auto industry, the incident has social-media professionals at Chrysler’s rivals reacting more viscerally, with observations ranging from support for Chrysler’s action to the assertion that “it couldn’t happen here.”
An employee of New Media Strategies on Wednesday Tweeted from the @ChryslerAutos account, “I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to f---ing drive.” Obviously, the tweeter thought he or she was sending a direct message offline to a friend rather than Chrysler’s account.
As social media oops go, it brings to mind two similar Twitter trip-ups involving major brands last month: Kenneth Cole's tweet pas using the #Cairo hashtag during the Egypt political upheaval, and the red-faced Red Cross employee who slipped up with a direct message but didn't get dismissed.
But this week's Chrysler incident, in particular, evoked little sympathy for the brand, which was moved to dismiss the agency (even though it had already fired the tweeter in question).
“It’s easy for people to get sloppy,” commented a social-media pro at another US automaker, who didn't want to publicly criticize a rival publicly, in an interview today with brandchannel. “But if you don’t have a potty mouth you can’t get into trouble.”
Another social-media practioner elsewhere in the auto industry vowed, “That won’t happen to us. Certainly not with Twitter. It’s the most personal of all the [social-media] platforms. Anybody who’s responsible for representing a brand client or on the agency side needs to understand that they need to watch themselves at every move. Otherwise you have to be ready for the consequences.”
And in that regard, the first pro was happy to see Chrysler fire the agency. “They’re working hard at coming back,” this person said. “I can’t believe they fired them but it’s good they did. They probably did the right thing. This sends a message to [social marketing agencies] and there will be zero tolerance for that kind of stuff."
As for Chrysler's now former social media agency, NMS couldn't be more apologetic. CEO Pete Snyder released this statement:
"New Media Strategies regrets this unfortunate incident. It certainly doesn’t accurately reflect the overall high-quality work we have produced for Chrysler. We respect their decision and will work with them to ensure an effective transition of this business going forward."
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