or , How Not To Use Social Media.

I was amazed over the weekend by the blunderbuss use of social media from what looks like a seasoned business / service tweeter - namely @aapresident (Edmund King).

To be clear - this post isn't a rant about The AA or Edmund King as such - in fact looking at his twitter stream, @aapresident personally answers his membership/customer queries and complaints directly. Which is a laudable approach for an obviously busy guy and is great for the brand.

The reason I'm blogging this is that I know the 'David' in this David and Goliath story, they are lovely folk and they've created a great App. Although it stands on its own as a cautionary tale despite my 'connection' to it.

E.g its a lesson in thinking before you (business) tweet.. of which there are a few documented now but this was close to home as it were.

The background to this:

Between the breaks in chocolate egg eating over the Easter break, I watched the developing row between a small App development company and a big national organisation, moving into the same App space.
The two businesses in question are startdotstar, who have developed the UK's first , comprehensive parking app (noseyparker) and the Automobile Association (AA).

I spotted the issue early on as Gareth (one of the owner directors of stardotstar) is a business friend and I follow him on Twitter.
I also follow the app (@noseyparkerapp) for updates etc.

The app is a great car park location finder and I've used it about 4 times since I got it. very handy is is too. And I am not biased, having paid for it - I'm commenting as a punter.

Gareth had spotted that the AA's new App (which came out after his) had hijacked their name in its keywords on the App store. Naughty.

He politely asked for this to be rectified. The response was a curt, un-presidential, 'get a life'.

It was at that point that lots of people jumped on this and started to re-tweet. Most with a sense of aggrieved incredulity.

See the open letter to the AA here:

How-Do have also run a feature on this, as it generated a lot of interest.. and a fair degree of outrage.

Things look to have calmed down (because the keyword misappropriation has been rectified, I am guessing) but the affair is a reminder for Brands to think before tweeting.