Red Cross Turns Twitter Frown Upside Down

In a great example of an organization taking responsibility for a Twitter fail and turning it into an opportunity for good PR, the Red Cross mea culpa’d all over the place last week after a representative drank and tweeted using the @redcross handle instead of her own by mistake.



But far from simply throwing the Red Cross at the feet of the public, begging for mercy, Wendy Harman, the celebrated social media strategist for Red Cross, joined in the conversation on Twitter itself, turning the moment into a opportunity to get attention from potential donors. Although the off-color tweet was deleted, Harman recognized that the RC’s 270,000+ followers wouldn’t necessarily forget it.  She summarized the situation with grace and humor in a post at the org’s blog.

While we’re a 130 year old humanitarian organization, we’re also made of up human beings. Thanks for not only getting that but for turning our faux pas into something good.

Besides Red Cross coming out of this smelling sweetly, the eau de hops was fragrant for Dogfish Beer, which set up a special donation site for the Red Cross in response to all of the attention.

{source:  Red Cross Chat}