What do Trey Songz— a famous R&B crooner—and Kenya have in common? A lot apparently.
The 27 year old American singer, better known for his hit songs “Can’t be friends” and Say aah was left with a lot fewer local fans last week after he met with the full ire of Kenyans online.
An innocent tweet on the popular social media website Twitter landed the star in trouble with the Kenyans on the website, with many accusing the star of being insensitive to the country after they viewed his post.
The star wrote “Watching this special on Life in Kenya. Counting my blessings, Thank You Father.” on his Twitter handle TreySongz.
It appears the star merely empathised with the people he saw on the programme and was grateful that he was not in a similar situation.
But last week, the majority of the country’s Twitter population united against the world famous R&B superstar and accused him of being, among other things, ignorant and insensitive, and also took the opportunity to freely criticise his character.
Mr Songz is not the first to have had an embarrassing Twitter moment.
With growing numbers of individuals and companies heading to the social media website to update their followers on their actions, there have been countless gaffes made online.
In early February, fashion designer Kenneth Cole came under attack for his insensitive comments on the uprising in Egypt.
At the height of protests aimed at ousting the country’s former president Hosni Mubarak, Mr Cole tweeted: “Millions are in uproar in Cairo.
Rumour is they heard our new spring collection is now available online at http://bit.ly/KCairo -KC”.
Although Kenneth Cole was quick to offer an apology after a slew of angry followers upbraided him for the comment, his followers pointed to his history of inappropriate sayings, highlighting one made in the aftermath of the September 11 bombings in New York in 2001.
Mr Cole told the New York Daily News: “Important moments like this are a time to reflect… To remind us, sometimes, that it’s not only important what you wear, but it’s also important to be aware.”But such occurrences do not always have to have bad endings.
Two weeks prior, the Red Cross faced a similar incident.
An employee who ran the account mistakenly wrote “Ryan found two more four bottle packs of Dogfish Head’s Midas Touch beer… when we drink we do it right #gettngslizzerd” using the site’s Twitter account.
Obviously, the message was not intended for Red Cross’ over 300,000 followers on the website, who are more accustomed to sober accounts detailing the good work the organisation undertakes around the world in disaster recovery and blood donation.
But the incident promises to become a prime example of how companies faced with similar issues should handle such incidents.
Apart from allowing the employee who wrote the tweet to keep her job, Red Cross quietly deleted the tweet and replaced it with a new one that read: “We’ve deleted the rogue tweet but rest assured the Red Cross is sober and we’ve confiscated the keys.”
Red Cross’ humorous take on the situation endeared it to its many followers, who praised it for its openness on the tweeting incident.
Create opportunity
Dogfish Head, the brewery that makes the beer, turned the faux pas into an opportunity to creatively collect funds for the Red Cross, asking its followers (tongue-in-cheek) to give donations of beer alongside their pints of blood.
In a Tweet on the subject, Dogfish Head said “Please join Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in raising money for the American Red Cross.
If you’re interested in donating a pint, please click here to learn more about Red Cross blood drives.
Note: Alcohol can often make you more dehydrated. Dogfish Head recommends not drinking immediately before or after donating.
Commenti