Many brands and 'celebrities' have taken part in 'open twitter' sessions during which they can be asked anything by the whole of the twittersphere.
This is hardly ever a great idea. It leaves a business or individual vulnerable to attacks on their flaws and limited time to craft the right answer to potentially brand-damaging questions.
Those who love to create a twitter-storm or simply enjoy sending abusive messages to large corporations and well known celebrities also thrive on these sort of sessions.
Welcome questions at your peril!
Ask me anything gone wrong - British Gas, October 2013
This time last year, British Gas started a Twitter Q & A campaign with the hashtag #AskBG. But twitter being twitter, some users took this as an opportunity to ask literally anything. Because they openly invited the questions, British Gas had little place to hide and had to simply wait out the deluge of questions.
Questions such as 'Would it be OK to burn the corpses of your board of directors when I can't afford my heating?' spread across twitter. Some of the strangest and most profane questions were favourited and retweeted on a large scale, leaving British Gas more than a little crestfallen.
Perhaps this teaches us that an open Q & A session depends heavily on the nature of a business. If a brand is heavily susceptible to complaints and controversy (the British Gas Q & A went live after a recent price hike) an open twitter session is quite simply asking for abuse on twitter.
So when is an 'ask us anything' session appropriate?
Not all that often, really. If people have a burning desire to ask a question on social media, they will go ahead and do it anyway. Social media users don't have to be invited to contribute to conversations- they just go ahead and contribute.
If an open Q & A session absolutely has to go ahead, answers to common and exposing questions should be carefully planned beforehand and the pros and cons of carrying out such an exercise should be taken into consideration.
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