Gloria Huang, A Social Activist

Gloria Huang, the Senior Social Engagement Specialist, was on her way back home when she was informed about the disaster her tweet that she blasted off one hour back had created. Gloria was taken aback and it took her a few minutes to figure out what exactly has happened. She immediately checked her Hootsuite account and was flabbergasted to see the tweet which was meant to be tweeted from her private account was now out to all 270,000 followers of @RedCross! She had no idea that her call for beer would turn into such a mishap.

American Red Cross is a humanitarian organisation that provides emergency assistance, disaster management help and education on preparedness, health and safety in America. It also provides communication and comfort services

The social media command centre is recognized as a best-in-class example of using social media to direct and engage communities during disasters. She trained over 150 digital volunteers and deployed them to respond to 11 disasters including Hurricane Sandy and Newtown Shooting. Her Pr team was awarded digital PR team of the year at Red Cross in the year 2010 and also she also won the American Red Cross Presidential Award of Excellence in 2012. She also received a 2014 Presidential Award for Excellence for leadership in social engagement for humanitarian

The tweet was removed but Red Cross soon realized that deleting the tweet is not the best option since Red Cross has a big audience and such a tweet will gain attention. Also just deleting the tweet may question their credibility.

Wendy Harman, social media director at Red Cross, responded in jest, tweeting— He also wrote in his blog, “We realized our honest mistake (the Tweeter was not drunk) and deleted the above Tweet. We all know that it’s impossible to really delete a tweet like this, so we acknowledged our mistake.”

Impressed by Red Cross’ acknowledgment of mistake and humane response, other tweeters especially @dogfishbeer’s fans started a fund raising and blood donation drive by using the hashtag #gettingslizzerd.

Mariah Calagione, Dogfish's vice president of marketing, when saw the tweet immediately re-tweeted and joined the conversation by tweeting—

This is a classic example where a mistake which could have turned into a disaster instead turned into a heartwarming story. Red cross handled the whole situation in a such a way that not only did it save them from embarrassment but it helped them gain more donations and publicity. Even Dogfish beer grabbed the opportunity for their marketing which helped them increase their