One Day It'll All Make Cents

That’s Ashton Kutcher aka stupid, Kutcher was one of the first and most prominent celebrities to use Twitter.  He has over 8 million followers and  7000+ tweets, all of them enthralling I’m sure, but this past week Kutcher showed that even  the most avid users can fall victim to the worst of all twitter sins.

Saying something really stupid.

If you haven’t heard one of the largest and ugliest scandals in college athletics came to light this week at Penn State University, you can read about it here, as a result of the scandal 84 year old Head Football Coach Joe Paterno, in his 46th year at Penn St, was fired.  ‘Joe Pa’ as he is affectionately known was a mythic figure at Penn St, even amongst other legendary head coaches, his appeal was broader and larger and it had always been thought Paterno would leave position on his own terms. His firing was a shock to some of the students at Penn St  and also apparently Ashton Kutcher

To anyone who understood the severity of allegations at Penn State and the absolute lack of action by Paterno or any of the Penn St senior leadership the firing was not only justified but absolutely necessary. Had Kutcher read the grand jury indictment, or watched any sports channel , news channel, listened to the radio, or used the google button for any of the 5 days preceding Paterno’s firing he would of understood gravity of the situation and the absolute evil that took place.  He apparently had no idea, leading to hundreds of comments from bewildered followers who couldn’t understand why he would seemingly align himself with the side that he did.  When figuring out how wrong his comment was Kutcher apologized, seen below

So whats the point of this?  The point is that for most brands an error like this causes irreparable damage.  Kutcher isn’t exactly known as an intellectual and as the guy filling in for Charlie Sheen on TV he is still probably a half dozen rehab stints short of hurting his career. Corporate Brands wouldn’t be as lucky.  This is why it is vital for brands using twitter to ensure the right people have control and that the goals of the feed are clearly understood.  It is important to be active and engage your followers but know that you don’t get mulligans in social media and just because you delete a stupid  tweet, doesn’t mean that it goes away because on Twitter stupidity lasts forever!