Home Depot, oy.
Last Thursday, at 12:24PM EST, Harvard Law student Jonathan Wall grabbed a screen shot of a horrifyingly racist, bizarre tweet from Home Depot.
At 3:30 PM EST, Home Depot tweeted him back: “We have zero tolerance for anything so stupid and offensive. Deeply sorry. We terminated agency and individual who posted it.” The company then individually tweeted everyone who retweeted the picture, with the same apology.
Thoughts:
1. That’s a better apology in 140 characters than many people manage in thousands. (Or in Rob Ford‘s case, at all.)
2. Bases covered: Apology is timely. Apology directly addresses those offended AND the public at large. Apology does not excuse behavior. Apology is accompanied by action (termination of individuals responsible).
3. Quibble: I’d have liked to know the name of the agency, so I’d know who to NOT HIRE if I ever have a real job. A job requiring an understanding of Twitter. (I will point out that SorryWatch’s other half handles our Twitter account.)
Home Depot’s director of corporate communications told Business Insider in an email, “We’re also closely reviewing our social media procedures to determine how this could have happened, and how to ensure it never happens again.”
