"Everything is possible to him who believes." Mark 9:23

Monday, October 15, 2012

Bad PR

I saw that I had a new follower on Twitter today so I looked to see who it was. @ONUBlackSwan is the user's Twitter handle. I thought to myself, "Hmm, someone doesn't have a life." It seemed a bit odd to have a Twitter account for a bird that makes it's home here on campus. As I read more of the Tweets, I was more and more appalled by the Tweets I was reading. The picture below are just a few examples of what the "Black Swan" was saying.
Ohio Northern University prides itself in the field of academics, athletics and student involvement. ONU works hard to keep a positive and clean image among other private universities and stakeholders of the institution. I know for a fact that if an older alum or even the Marketing and Communications Department saw this, people would become upset. 

This Twitter account reflects on not only the institution, but the students who go here. If a prospective student were to see this Twitter account, they would probably think first of all what the heck was that all about and secondly, what is the deal with the "Black Swan?" These swans were put into place to keep the Canadian Geese from over populating and making a home here on campus. That hasn't really been kept true to form, but the swans do help with over population. These swans are very territorial and do protect their nests. They were not put on this campus to scare students or chase them. In recent years, there have been attacks by students upon the helpless birds. 

If I were in the Marketing and Communications Department at Ohio Northern, I would do some research. I would find out who was behind the Twitter account for the ONU BlackSwan, (also the Ada Goggles accont). I would then even post on ONU's Twitter account interesting and positive facts about the black swans. Once I did my research and found out who was behind the account, I would as them to clean up their Twitter account. I think it is funny that some individual has given a personality and voice to the famous black swans; however, the language and Tweets need to be cleaned up and user friendly. ONU has the ability and means necessary to turn this bad PR Twitter account into a positive PR tool. 

4 comments:

  1. I'm so glad that you blogged about this. I feel the exact same way about the Black Swan twitter account. Even though it may be funny to current students, the content is inappropriate for other viewers. Have you seen the Twitter handle ONU Problemz? That is another one that I wish would either go away or be cleaned up. They tweeted something yesterday that really made me angry. Whoever runs these accounts seriously must not have a life or a major. We should find them and give them a serious talking to!

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  2. Agree! These people need to start doing more school work or find a significant other or something. I barely have time to update and monitor my own Twitter account, let alone the accounts of birds. Who are these people?

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  3. ONU Black Swan started following me as well and I thought the follower would be similar to the ONU Student twitter account...it was not. I didn't even follow them back because after reading just a sample of their tweets I knew I wasn't interested.

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  4. Hmm.. This is a very interesting post. I had no idea such things existed! Probably because I never get on my Twitter.

    But you are completely right, the Marketing and Communications Department needs to get on this! ONU works too hard to create a brand to have it be hindered by people making personal twitter handles with ONU's name on it. Completely inappropriate.

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