BlackBerry tweet backfires on Research in Motion
Research in Motion can’t catch a break. A tweet sent out Wednesday meant to promote its BlackBerry brand has backfired on the Canadian company, with many people using the tweet to bash RIM’s phones.
The company tweeted from its @BlackBerry account “Fill in the blank: BlackBerry helps me ________.” However, many of the people who responded didn’t find BlackBerry too helpful.
“Realize how thankful I am for my #iPhone,” said one user, in one of the tamest yet worst responses RIM could have received. Not to be outdone, though, another user said the same about Android.
Another user said she throws her phone at the wall and that was in response to another user who was complaining about how BlackBerry phones require you to pull their batteries out when the phone freezes and crashes.
“BlackBerry helps me with my _______. • Throwingskills,” said another user.
Mentions of the iPhone showed up in various iterations as a response to the tweet. Among the iPhone mentions were: “Appreciate my iPhone,” “Realise (sic) that I want an iphone,” “Blackberry helps me be thankful for my iPhone,” and last but not least, “@BlackBerry Helps me ENVY ... my friends with iPhones!”
But not all the BlackBerry disses were as cruel as those above. Some were done very courteously.
“Blackberry helps me understand that nothing is perfect,” said one user while another said: “to be patient.”
And another user pointed out how BlackBerry helps her by keeping her papers from flying off her desk.
But as bad as some responses were, BlackBerry did receive some good interaction. Some users highlighted BlackBerry’s physical keyboard that helps them type fast, their BBM messaging service and others simply said BlackBerry helped them to communicate.
“BlackBerry helps me with everything,” another user said. “My BlackBerry is my life :D”
The last time I checked, it split evenly among positive and negative responses, but some of the negative responses didn’t even have to do with RIM’s phones.
“Helps me by fill in the blank] ....laying off 5000 awesome people that I can hire. #riskytwittercampaigns,” said another user, highlighting RIM’s recent woes.
I contacted RIM and will update if the company responds to the negative feedback.
[For the record, June 5, 3:20 p.m.: An earlier version of this post said RIM paid for the tweet to be promoted as part of a campaign. The company clarified that although it did promote the tweet, it did not pay any money to do that. Rather, it has an enhanced Twitter account that allows it to pin tweets to the top of their feed.
“Like most brands with a significant social media footprint, we receive a mix of good, neutral, and sometimes negative replies when we publish,” a RIM spokesperson said. “We embrace the good feedback and the criticism as part of our direct engagement on our social channels.”]
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