Footballer DeSean Jackson's Twitter boast about his salary backfired when a jeweller replied
Jeweller uses Twitter for debt collection
Posted June 26, 2012 |
When an American Football player used Twitter to brag about signing a
new contract, his jeweller saw it as an opportunity to remind him of his
unpaid bills, publicly.
What is the first thing you would do if you knew you were going to be coming into a lot of money? Would you settle your debts?
Philadelphia Eagles player DeSean Jackson had just signed a new five-year contract worth US$47 million and took to Twitter to celebrate.
“We came from nothing so a course [sic] we going to embrace it when we make it,” he tweeted.
The boast caught the attention of Philadelphia jeweller Josef Roth, who responded by claiming the athlete was 'playing' him and had an unpaid bill with his store, Shyne Jewellers.
“So when you make it, does that mean play people when you can....u forgetting you still got a balance with me,” Shyne Jewellers tweeted back to Jackson.
Roth quickly fired off a follow up tweet making it clear he thought Jackson had mistreated him.
“So now that you embrace making it why don't you embrace keeping it real with me and not playing me for my jewelry,” he wrote.
Jackson didn’t reply publicly.
The tirade raised an interesting question; can Twitter be used effectively for small business account management?
Jenna Price, a journalism lecturer at the University of Sydney specialising in social media, told Jeweller that the tirade was a reverse of the usual business-customer relationship on Twitter.
“Twitter users are very well-versed at using the microblogging network to shame,” she said, “but usually it is customers doing the shaming to companies and not the other way around.”
Price said Shyne Jewellers’ use of Twitter may achieve its immediate goals, but could backfire in the long term.
“I'd say any company using Twitter to shame a customer would be adopting a high-risk strategy since companies are meant to keep customer details private,” she said. “It’s great for the jeweller who did it to get their money - but my standard warning would be that it may well put other customers off. I would certainly never do business with a company that revealed any customer details.”
Price issued a warning about using social media while furious.
“Twitter users often regret tweeting while drunk - and tweeting while angry about money should carry a commercial health warning,” she said.
More reading
Jeweller: Digital & Social Media Guide