PR Trending: Tweet and Delete

Photo Credit: blogs.knoxnews.com

How far would you go to increase your company's media buzz? Some public relations professionals are considering risky social media strategies to gain notice.

The “Tweet and Delete” strategy entails posting a tweet, which may or may not be controversial, and deleting it soon after. The intention is to spark a conversation about this deleted tweet or the organization due to the suspicious reasoning behind the delete.

Online databases like The Sunshine Foundation catalog deleted tweets by politicians and celebrities. These tweets often catch the eye of the media and are then used to create buzz in the public sphere. But should public relations professionals employ this gambit in their media strategies? It’s a dangerous game to play when fooling the media and the public whose relationship and credibility most businesses depend on for its success.

The very foundation of this strategy is to fool online readers, which fails the PRSSA code of ethics’ standards in more than one category.  Public relations professionals are called to advocate, be honest and remain loyal to their key publics.

“Yes, PR pros using this technique might successfully fool the media and the public with a “tweet and delete” strategy,” Brad Phillips said in the PRDaily.com article Tweet it and delete it—a smart, new PR gambit? “But it could come at the cost of their media relationships and their public credibility.“

Although “Tweet and Delete” may seem to be the easy way to gain more  media exposure in this era of information overload, public relations professionals should be wary of the consequences this risky gambit can produce.