Fake BP Twitter Account A PR Nightmare
By Ben Haber
May 25th, 2010
On May 19th the first tweet was posted: “We regretfully admit that something has happened off of the Gulf Coast. More to come.”
Then about 10 minutes later came the second tweet: “Adorable! Naughty Kitty Makes a Mess! www.youtube.com/watch?v=greOQOD6GDA”
And 20 minutes later another: “Think about it this way, the ocean is like rootbeer and oil is like ice cream. We just made America a giant rootbeer float!”
Even though the Twitter account handle account is labeled BPGlobalPR the content being posted during the past 6-7 days has been a nightmare for BP’s actual PR team. Someone (who is clearly having fun) decided to mock BP’s poor handling of the oil spill with witty one-liners such as, “Jesus walked on water and soon you can too! (Please pray for BP, we’re losing a lot of oil).”
The account has become quite popular – attracting over 25,000 followers in this short time, more than double the number of followers for BP’s official corporate Twitter account and Twitter account covering the oil spill combine. Even more scary for BP is the amount of re-tweets this fake account is getting, which is what’s driving it’s visibility.
This situation provides other companies with an idea of how social media can be used against them during an ugly situation. Quick, honest responses can do a lot in image control and management, which BP is now learning about first hand.
Entry Filed under: Digital Media Relations,Twitter
11 Comments Add your own
1. RaceTalk | May 25th, 2010 at 2:21 pm
New RaceTalk Post: Fake BP Twitter Account A PR Nightmare http://bit.ly/ayF9ok
2. Ginger Lennon | May 25th, 2010 at 2:36 pm
New @RaceTalk Blog post by our very own @bhaber602 — "Fake BP Twitter Account A PR Nightmare" http://bit.ly/ayF9ok #pr #bp
3. Jeff Copp | May 25th, 2010 at 2:41 pm
Fake BP Twitter Account A PR Nightmare http://bit.ly/a1iQvh #fail
4. MelissaBasileo | May 25th, 2010 at 2:50 pm
Loving this post -RT @racepointgroup New @RaceTalk Blog post by @bhaber602 – "Fake BP Twitter Account A PR Nightmare" http://bit.ly/ayF9ok
5. RaceTalk | May 25th, 2010 at 7:21 pm
New RaceTalk Post: Fake BP Twitter Account A PR Nightmare http://bit.ly/ayF9ok
6. Douglas K. Chia | May 26th, 2010 at 1:44 pm
RaceTalkBlog: "Fake BP Twitter Account A PR Nightmare" http://bit.ly/a2i7Nq
7. Scott Ludwig | May 26th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
Fake BP Twitter account @BPGlobalPR is causing a ruckus http://bit.ly/cBVKKv – Have to admit some funny tweets though lol
8. kmjudd | May 26th, 2010 at 3:08 pm
RT @BostonRS: Fake BP Twitter account @BPGlobalPR is causing a ruckus http://bit.ly/cBVKKv – Have to admit some funny tweets though lol
9. Nightmare Continues for B&hellip | May 27th, 2010 at 7:36 am
[...] the past week the fake BP Twitter account has become quite popular – attracting over 55,000 followers in just over a week. In many of [...]
10. TweetsByUs | May 29th, 2010 at 10:00 am
Fake BP Twitter Account A PR Nightmare: http://bit.ly/cNj6mw
11. TweetsByUs | May 29th, 2010 at 3:00 pm
Fake BP Twitter Account A PR Nightmare: http://bit.ly/cNj6mw
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