Twitter followers of retiring Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) got a surprising tweet from him last Thursday morning.
“U love torturing me w this shit.” was tweeted from the Senator’s Twitter account @SenChrisDodd. Then came the tweet “From Dodd Staff – Apologies to Dodd’s followers, last tweet was not from Chris Dodd.”
The first tweet has quickly deleted but not before some of his followers took screenshots and sent out comical tweets about it. Later in the day, Senator Dodd’s office released a statement addressing the tweet.
“Due to a technical mistake, a message was inadvertently sent from Senator Dodd’s twitter account. Senator Dodd did not send the message. We have corrected the situation and apologize to his followers for the mistake and inappropriate language used in the message.”
I’ve written before about the dangers of assigning a junior staff member or intern to manage your organization’s social media. You would never let junior staffers do a live interview on television, so why let them near your Twitter account, especially if they haven’t been thoroughly trained? Since Senator Dodd is retiring soon, the answer in his case could be a temporary change in duties as his office winds down.
What’s the lesson learned? Never take social media assignments and training lightly, even temporarily, or you risk making a fool out of yourself all over the Internet.
What lesson do you think we can learn from Senator Dodd’s “technical mistake?” Please share your ideas in the comments section below.
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