When It Goes Wrong On Twitter, It Goes REALLY Wrong

If you learned anything from Brazil’s epic thrashing in the world cup last week, Webwindows suggests it be, when it goes wrong on Twitter, it goes really wrong.

Webwindows Watched in Shock as Germany Annihilated the Home Team

Webwindows is a web marketing firm which offers a range of key services that make sure you walk away with the right marketing strategy for your business. Part of that job description means we follow current events with a dedication you could only call single-minded

Just like the rest of the world, we watched with a sense of disbelief, when Germany thrashed Brazil 7-1 in the world cup semi-final last week. It was quite simply a car crash of epic proportions, and of course, it all blew up on Twitter.

The Match Racked Up a Record 35.6 Million Tweets

Let this be a lesson in how Twitter reacts when you fail at what you do. According to the Guardian, following Brazil’s fierce beating by the German team, Tweeters took to the social media site in their millions to weigh in on the most shocking result ever witnessed in the world of football. The match was the most discussed sporting event ever on Twitter- it racked up a phenomenal 35.6 million Tweets.

Twitter wasn’t the only social media site users chose to air their disbelief, though, as it triggered the highest level of conversation EVER seen on Facebook for any World Cup game (as of the time of writing). Specifically, more than 66 million users had 200 million interactions about the biggest humiliation in Brazil’s football history; Brazil dominated over a quarter of that global conversation on the site.

More Popular Than Miley Cyrus, Beyoncé and Barack Obama

It gets even worse for Brazil though, as data from Twitter went on to reveal that because of the rate that Germany was scoring goals - five goals in an astonishing 18 minutes – the match racked up a record number of tweets per minute. The peak came when Sami Khedira racked up Germany’s fifth (we still can’t believe it) goal – which saw 580,166 tweets posted per minute.

This means that Khedira’s goal was more popular than Miley Cyrus’ infamous MTV VMA’s performance last year- which crested 360,000 tweets per minute, Beyoncé’s 2013 Super Bowl halftime show (268,000) and US President Barack Obama’s Democratic National Convention acceptance speech, which topped at 52, 756 tweets per minute.

Twitter Can Make or Break You!

If you learn anything from this, it should be that when it comes to online marketing, Twitter can make or break you. If you epically screw up, you can be sure that within a few seconds, the whole world will know about it and, all of a sudden, all that effort you’ve put into your web marketing strategy means nothing at all. 

Don’t Let People Ask you Anything on Twitter!

If you want to craft an effective social media advertising strategy, WebWindows suggests you learn from Robin Thicke’s mistake and don’t give people license to ask you anything!

Welcome to WebWindows

Over the past ten years, WebWindows has evolved to become one of the leading web marketing firms in the industry, offering our unique range of key services to businesses of every size, to ensure that they walk away from us with the effective web marketing strategy they need to take their business to the next level.

Of course, we’ve stood on the front lines and witnessed the rise of social media. In the modern wold, where hundreds of millions, even billions, are on Facebook and Twitter, and where the nature of these sites allow you to target your audience with pin point precession, marketing has never been easier. But only if you do it right.

He Really Blurred the Lines

You may wonder why we’re turning our attention to Robin Thicke. The man’s an American pop star, and until recently he wasn’t exactly a very famous one. What could we all possibly learn from him?

Well quite a lot. Thicke reached worldwide fame last year when he released his song ‘Blurred Lines.’ Dealing with controversial issues (i.e. date rape), it was condemned by practically everybody, with Thicke becoming, according to various news sources, the ‘poster boy of misogyny.’ But what does it have to do with your online marketing campaign?

‘#AskThicke’…. Why He’s a Monumental Misogynist!

Last week Thicke went ahead with his latest online promotional campaign. The problem, was that the campaign was billed as a chance to ask Thicke anything on Twitter with the hashtag ‘#AskThicke.’

Obviously, people who see him as the ‘poster boy of misogyny’ ripped him apart. According to The Independent, particularly negative tweets included “if one of your songs played in a forest and no one was around to hear it would it still be sexist and gross?,” and "when you're not busy objectifying women, making light of rape and justifying sexual violence, how do you like to relax?” They’re only the tip of the iceberg.

Ask Anything Q&A’s Are Horrible Ideas!

This isn’t the first time WebWindows has seen an ‘ask anything’ twitter Q&A session go horrifically wrong. We don’t know why people are still doing it, but if you are, don’t! You will leave yourself open to trolls, just accept that and move on!

Webwindows Begs You Not to Do What British Gas Did on Twitter

If you want to use Twitter to promote your ad campaign, great, but you need to use common sense. That’s why this week Webwindows begs you not to do what British Gas did on Twitter.

Twitter: A Double Edged Sword

We specialise in advising you about the wonderful world or web marketing here at Webwindows. In our ten years in the game, we couldn’t fail to notice just how powerful Twitter has grown as an advertising platform. With half a billion users, one carefully crafted Tweet can bring your ad campaign to hundreds of millions.

Twitter’s strength is also its weakness. If you happen to miscalculate your Twitter promotion it has the ability to anger those same millions, turn them against you, prompt them to create a campaign to hijack your ad campaign and render it practically impotent.

What not to do on Twitter: The British Gas Edition

If you don’t believe us, remember what happened to British Gas when they made this fatal mistake. By the time the trolls had finished with them, their ad campaign had been disgraced; it had made the headlines in practically every online British publication and ruined their page one on Google. It drove away customers in droves.

So what did they do? Well, as most energy companies have been lately, they decided to raise their prices. Naturally, annoyed customers who were looking for any chance to vent their frustrations.

Then they initiated a Q&A session on Twitter with the hashtag #AskBG. It was like lighting a match next to a powdered keg, as the company’s many frustrated customers gleefully took the opportunity to high-jack the hashtag to ask just why their energy company raised prices so high. Then British Gas made it worse by promoting the campaign on Facebook; the only social networking site with more users than Twitter.

Webwindows Asks: What Should You Take Away from This “Terrible PR Stunt?”

Here’s where Webwindows makes its case. Don’t be like British Gas. They’re a big company, they can handle bad press. Most companies can’t. A campaign like this that angers so many customers has the potential to ruin a smaller firm. If you take anything away from this terrible PR stunt, let it be that you need to know your audience inside out. 

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