If you’re a fan of celebrity gossip (or even if you’re not), you’ve probably heard the news: Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore are getting divorced. To say it has overshadowed other controversies surrounding the young new star of Two and a Half Men would be an understatement. We’re here to fill you in on what you missed.
Last week, Kutcher, unaware of the emerging case of child sex-abuse against Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, tweeted the following:
Obviously, the only thing in poor taste was the tweet, but Kutcher later realized his mistake and quickly attempted to make amends with his many (and some very angry) fans — 8,403,607 to be exact. It was during this process that I think he really went wrong (the tweet I can easily forgive – everyone makes mistakes!).
In a short tweet on Nov. 10, Ashton wrote “Twitter Management” and shared a hyperlink to his blog. There he wrote, “Up until today, I have posted virtually every one of my tweets on my own, but clearly the platform has become too big to be managed by a single individual….I’m going to turn the management of the feed over to my team at Katalyst as a secondary editorial measure, to ensure the quality of its content.”
I think social media expert Peter Shankman put it best, “NO, NO, NO, NO, NO.”
“The second you hand over your Twitter account to your people,” Shankman wrote, “your account stops being real, your voice starts being ‘crafted’ and you start being out of touch.”
I couldn’t agree more.
Right now, more than ever before, Ashton needs to be able to speak for himself. Eight million fans didn’t sign up to follow some production company (albeit Ashton’s production company). They want to hear from Ashton.
So what can we take away from this? One: own your mistakes. Two: move on. Three: don’t give up.
What are your thoughts on the matter? What do you think Kutcher could do to wrong this right (and no, we’re not talking about the tweet itself, we’re talking about his decision to hand over his Twitter account). We’d love to hear more from you!
This is great advice. Eventually you are going to make a virtual faux pas; your readers/customers will find it much more acceptable and respectable if you simply own your mistake, and move on rather than hide from it.