Working in the social media business, there’s a lot of talk about the do’s and don’ts of posting. But it’s easy, sometimes, to forget how much is truly at stake when letting others access social accounts and directly represent the brand. But with the New York Daily News (NYDN) social media staff going rogue on Twitter after being fired, it jolts things back into perspective. They’re not the only social team that has led to some company scandals. Here are some of the craziest corporate social media mishaps.

 

New York Daily News  

The NYDN social media team truly got the last laugh. A few days ago, after major cuts to their editorial and social team, the Daily News tweeted a few…odd gifs, which sparked varied reactions from its audience. 

Many people realized what was going on: a recently fired social media manager was taking over, and cracked jokes about how they should just change the password and maintain control of it. Alas, soon after the tweets were deleted; the NY Daily News Twitter takeover has quickly become a thing of the past.

HMV

A few years ago, in 2013, another company Twitter was hijacked by a disgruntled former employee. But this employee live-tweeted the lay-offs. During the lay-offs of 60 employees, one of the firees of HMV (a retail brand in the UK) took to the company Twitter. The tweets have since been deleted but they read as follows:

• “We’re tweeting live from HR where we’re all being fired! Exciting!! #hmvXFactorFiring”
• “There are over 60 of us being fired at once! Mass execution, of loyal employees who love the brand. #hmvXFactorFiring”
• “Just overheard our Marketing Director (he’s staying, folks) ask “How do I shut down Twitter?” #hmvXFactorFiring”

The tweets continued on for some time, but were taken down, presumably by the aforementioned Marketing Director.

BBC

There have been so many fake reports of celebrities dying, it’s become hard to keep track. But back in 2015, an official BBC reporter tweeted that the Queen had died. This resulted in absolute chaos of course, but the tweets were swiftly deleted.

In a later statement explaining the situation, BBC communicated to the public that the tweets were just a rehearsal for when the obituary would be needed to be sent out. The reporter claimed it was a “silly prank,” but many believe she simply thought the technical rehearsal was real.

US Airways

If you think accidentally tweeting out the death of the Queen was bad, take a look (or don’t) at what US Airways accidentally tweeted back in 2014.

While responding to a customer service complaint on Twitter, the official US Airways Twitter account seems to have accidentally pasted the wrong image source into the tweet…and tweeted a picture featuring graphic pornography. It was quickly deleted when many began replying to the tweet.

I would HATE to be in PR for US Airways right now

— Chinmay Vaidya (@Chinmay_Vaidya) April 14, 2014

They later explained that when trying to delete a different tweet featuring the graphic image, the image URL was copied and then subsequently pasted into the customer service tweet, which went through without vetting.

British Milk Council

With all of these company mishaps blowing up the internet, there was bound to be a parody sometime. Back in April, a fake Twitter account for the British Milk Council took it upon themselves to something similar.

The thread began with a disgruntled former employee being… well, straight-up pissed off.

Just been called into the office to be told that British Milk Council are shutting down all social channels. I’m out of a job. Something about misuse of data higher up. Fuck that. I’ve changed the password and they’re not having the account back.

— BRITISH MILK COUNCIL (@BuyBritishMilk) April 16, 2018

Soon after, his coworker got on the thread to say shut it down, but he quickly countered with

“Donna your a f***ing pie. Can’t even keep your own twitter account secure, never mind customers data. S**tshow of an organisation”

It continued on for a bit in a humorous fashion, and got thousands of retweets and likes. This interaction truly would’ve taken the cake…if it had been real.

Here’s a more fun parody example now, that the Metter Media team loves to follow:

@EpcotCentre

This Twitter account, boasting 67.8k followers, regularly tweets out (fake) announcements from Epcot. Some of these hilarious tweets include:

They say there was a rainbow over the park yesterday & some folks said there was also a cloud that looked like an angel but I was at lunch.

— Epcot Centre (@EpcotCentre) July 27, 2018

Epcot tends to stay in the Orlando area. https://t.co/1HyWNwj4ND

— Epcot Centre (@EpcotCentre) May 26, 2018

And if you’re wondering whether they’re sorry about it, then take a look at this tweet.

Epcot never apologizes. Period.

— Epcot Centre (@EpcotCentre) July 24, 2018

Safe to say, this comedy account has won Twitter.

With all of these social media disasters, it’s important to remember to monitor your social presence, whether you’re a brand or just a singular person. Keeping passwords protected and changing them frequently is a good way to ward off any troublemakers and always remember to change the Twitter password before you fire the entire social media team (but please don’t fire them!).

Social media disasters don’t happen all the time, but what do you think you would do if you saw these tweets?

Metter Media LLC is a Boston-based social media management company that implements community-based, localized social engagement strategies small businesses and corporations alike. Need help with your social media? Email Lauren today.