We’ve seen a lot of clueless companies misuse Twitter, but it’s going to be hard to top the blunder Ace Hardware just made.
Yesterday, @AceHardware sent out numerous tweets proving that the company has no idea what hammers are. This would be pretty embarrassing for any organization, but for a hardware store, it’s even worse. Read the tweets for yourself and you’ll see how big a mistake it was:
You’d hope it would’ve stopped there, but the company kept going. It’s hard not to cringe as you watch Ace put its foot in its mouth over and over again.
After thousands of people flooded Ace’s Twitter feed and other social media channels with responses that the item was a hammer, the company was quick to delete its tweets. But by that point, the damage was already done.
This morning, the organization seems to be in crisis mode, and has already issued an apology:
Yikes. This debacle proves that social media is a double-edged sword. If used correctly, Twitter can build your brand, but just one carelessly worded tweet about hammers can leave you with a whole lot of egg on your face.
