Whenever an individual or business makes a terrible mistake using social media, we at Windy City Strategies want to make sure we call it out, in order to help us all avoid similar social media gaffes in the future.
But today’s is a weird one. It’s not a gaffe of commission, but rather, omission.
Netflix has separated the DVD-by-mail portion of their business into a new company, called Qwikster. The only problem is, it’s a new company name. And the Twitter name, @Qwikster, was already taken, and being used by a fairly lewd student, who repeatedly references sexual interests and recreational drug usage.
Oops. Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise – an opportunity for Netflix to take back the simply awful Qwikster name? But, what’s the lesson here. For years now, companies have avoided naming their company a name they can’t acquire the .com domain version of. Is a vacant Twitter name now a standard business requirement, too?