Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Of Twitter Haters and PR Fails

This post was going to be a standard Mummy Blogger post about how I got up at 5:30am the other day (alternatively known as the ass crack of the day, a time when no human should be awake) so Tricky could see the bus that Map Guy had hired for a bucks party. It was going to be warm and fuzzy and leave the females in the audience with aching ovaries at all the cuteness of an excited toddler's dreams coming true as a bus pulled in to our driveway and took him for a ride up and down the street.

But all that went flying out the window when I checked Twitter at our post-awesome-bus-trip breakfast on the edge of the Swan River and saw this:

Gee, tell me how you really feel.

So I had a look at Biker Vet's account, found out he followed fourteen people, had nine followers and tweeted mainly about bikes, the defense forces and bad PR. No other tweets anything like the one directed at me, so it obviously wasn't just a random hate account. Someone I know? An ex? A friend of a friend of a non-friend who's decided to be a super mature keyboard warrior, hiding behind a pseudonym?

I of course decided to take the moral high ground and not be caught up in it. Well, I would have, but it was much more fun to do this:

Which I think sorta upset him. Or perhaps it was the half dozen retweets of it? Or the tweets of others, like Super Daddy saying not only did he give a flying fuck but a rat's arse too. Love my tweeps!

He countered:


Riiight. So I'm a clueless, vacuous bimbo who needs to get a life, yet HE'S the one spending time sending hate tweets? The irony bubbled up around me and I went for a swim in it! Irony spa FTW!

But I'm thrilled to find out I apparently work in PR. Sending a few muesli bars and calling people Dear Blogger? I could totally do that, thanks Biker Vet for your encouragement to change careers!

By this stage a few people had noticed and were asking what I'd done to make this guy so cranky at me. I told them I had no idea and he was obviously watching my tweets because he replied:


And attached this photo with one name blocked out:


Yes, that's right. I did a reply all to @claytonwfu5y who had spammed us all (that account is now suspended because I always block and report spam) and for that, I am being called horrid names as if we're in a playground. And for the record, one of the others in the group, who understands what a reply all is, retweeted it.

Interestingly on Biker Vet's timeline he complains about clicking on a link that has now infected his email account... there is NO LINK in my tweet, I'm complaining about said link in my tweet, yet I'm the spammer?  Sheesh!

Just after that tweet I get an email from a newly created Biker Vet gmail account (a warning popped up that it was a new linked account) saying "This was posted to my business twitter account. It may not have come from you. Please confirm." with a copy of the same image with the name blocked out.

Ohhhh right, so he checked it was from me after calling me a clueless, vacuous bimbo? Way to jump the gun, Biker Vet.

So I assume (possibly making an "ass out of u and me", but hey, I'm gonna go with it) that the name blocked out is Biker Vet's business account that he mentions. I also assume that Biker Vet has no idea that I can find this out by a two second search of my own timeline. And voila, we have our answer.

Mr Biker Vet, you are unmasked... and I could spill the beans and tell the world (well a few thousand readers) who it was that was posting such crude comments about me, but I'm going to restrain myself for a few reasons, number one, because I don't want a barrage of readers to go to your website and give you traffic and number two, I won't be pulled in to a defamation lawsuit.

But I know who you are. So how about I click on over to your page and see what you do, shall we? Oh, look at that, you do personal training and... wait for it... PR! Can you say PR Fail?

I have replied to both tweet and email (cc-ing in his real email address that took a whole five seconds to find on his website), stating that it was a reply all to a spammer... and he's refusing to reply to me. Radio silence. Crickets chirping and tumbleweeds. Me thinks he's not so tough now that I know his real name?


So kudos, Biker Vet, for a massive PR Fail before your PR company is even off the ground.

What have we learned from this adventure? The internet is forever, everything is traceable, I'm now classed as Twitter Royalty for having a hater and my tweeps are awesome. The end.

I'm putting this to bed now. No Twitter flame wars on my behalf, thanks.

54 comments:

  1. He is a bit of a silly billy! xx

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  2. Kim (workingwomenaus)January 18, 2012 at 8:04 AM

    It amazes me that people STILL think they can hide behind computers.  As has been shown, people are easy to trace.  What are the PR fail awards called?  Nomination looming

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  3. As Mr T would say.... "I Pity The Fool" tsk tsk tsk.

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  4. Biker Vet seems a bit trigger happy - not so great with communication, crisis management or social media either. Hope he is a really good personal trainer!

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  5. Biker Vet seems a bit trigger happy - not so great with communication, crisis management or social media either. Hope he is a really good personal trainer!

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  6. Biker Vet seems a bit trigger happy - not so great with communication, crisis management or social media either. Hope he is a really good personal trainer!

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  7. Biker Vet seems a bit trigger happy - not so great with communication, crisis management or social media either. Hope he is a really good personal trainer!

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  8. Shame shame shame.... But do agree it does make you blogging royalty xx

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  9. Shame shame shame.... But do agree it does make you blogging royalty xx

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  10. Way to go Glowless *stands and claps*

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  11. I hope his PR specialty isn't social media. Double douche.

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  12. I love anyone that goes off half-cocked then realises their cockup.

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  13. But for those of us playing along at home, it was *hilarious*. Biker Vet best not give up his(?) day job.

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  14. I love how lame that is. Well handled Glow.

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  15. hehe what a dick good job glow!

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  16. so putting my 'former PR' hat on here, i assume a handle like Biker Vet would imply one is a hardened man of the world … until he cried like a baby over nothing? and no, this isn't a question of defining masculinity, it's about the massive gap between the image he choses the project and how he makes himself sound. now that's a hilarious PR fail!  xt

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  17. Can I just say, watching this play out 2 days later when I checked my Twitter timeline was the best entertainment I've had in AGES. Thank you and well done.

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  18. What a tosser! Cannot believe he didn't think you could find him ;)

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  19. Fark thats funny!
    Im sorry I missed it all

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  20. When this guy personal trains, does he abuse his clients all the way through the session, then at the end, says 'Er, right you are- good job..."? Dickflop.

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  21. Just because the word Biker is used does not mean he is "hard" it just means he likes to ride motorcycles, the two do not always go hand in hand ;-)

    He is however a douche for 1. having a go over nothing and 2. thinking he could remain anonymous!

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  22. It's like, you're a detective! You should open your own agency. In a dim-lit alleyway somewhere.

    I'm TEAM GLOW.

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  23. I would have loved a "my bad" tweet. The hilarity of it would have made up for all the douchery.

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  24. It was rather fun... is that bad? ;-)

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  25. That's funny because I took it as hardened man of the world because he's a war vet. All it shows it that words can be interpreted differently and we have to be careful (especially before slagging them off on Twitter hehe)

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  26. Yeah blocking out your name from something on my own timeline... not even a challenge to find him!

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  27. Nice research, a little bit of ground work goes a long way.

    Good one.

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  28. He never gave me that apology you said he should... I don't think I'll get it either

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  29. Let's assume he is brilliant at it...

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  30. I think he should hire me to be his social media advisor ;-)

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  31. I thought PR types were more social media savvy than that

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  32. It's disappointing that someone went to the effort to just bad mouth another person with the aim to bring them down

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  33. Thanks! Was quite a lot of smacking my own head on to the desk to try and understand how someone could get it so wrong

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  34. Asshat is an awesome word. I must use it more often.

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  35. It was rather entertaining seeing everyone comment on that first rebuttal!

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  36. I think it's a Twitter baptism by fire. He'll never make that mistake again (least I hope so!)

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  37. Bahaha I hope he has a little more tact in his day job that telling people to get a life

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  38. I think I need to make buttons with TEAM GLOW written on them for the next conference

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  39. So much time wasted being angry at THE WRONG PERSON! #getalife is spot on!

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  40. Naw, poor Biker Vet. Why, if it wasn't for that meddling Glow...

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  41. I must have missed that!  That's what I get for having class all day while everyone else is on Twitter!

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  42. Love that I'm not the only one calling you twitter royalty!

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  43. Hilarious! I pictured a veteranian on a Vespa - douche indeed.

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  44. I'm glad you got things sorted. And thanks for the plug! You are the bombdiggity!

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