eBay Joins Ranks of Brands Making Mistakes on Twitter

Advertisers and brands can’t seem to get enough of Promoted Tweets on Twitter. They also can’t seem to do them right. Brands (and their agencies) seem to forget that Twitter is a dynamic environment, where things happen in real-time. Marketing your brand on Twitter isn’t like purchasing advertising space from a publisher like The Weather Channel. It’s much more complex, and involves around the clock thinking and bidding.

eBay fell into the trap this week, promoting a tweet on a Monday that asked users to retweet if they were glad it’s Friday. Given it was a Monday, the Friday tweet was being promoted all weekend as well. The tweet is a simple mistake where the person running the Twitter campaign failed to place timing constraints on the tweet and remove it from the list of tweets eBay was to promote. The result? Confused consumers that immediately either question what happened to the week or realize the auction giant wasn’t up on its game with its marketing.

I contacted eBay via Twitter letting them know it was no longer Friday. I have not yet received a response.

Don’t become the next brand that makes this mistake. Brands must work closely with those running their marketing efforts to ensure things run smoothly- or face the dire consequences of making it an example of social media mishaps.

– Bryan Nagy

Disclaimer: This article does not reflect my views towards the agency that manages eBay’s Twitter campaigns.