Twitter has been a fantastic crisis management tool for businesses, allowing them to provide one-on-one communication and service to more customers than ever before. For some reason, when Chicago-based Horizon Group Management LLC aka Horizon Realty Group came across the following complaint in a tweet (casually made in response to a friend’s comments) by Amanda Bonnen, they chose to forgo this route, and instead decided to sue her for $50,000!
“Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it’s okay.”
Considering the fact that Bonnen had less than 30 followers, posting this message could hardly be deemed damaging to Horizon. I can’t say the same, however, for their own lawsuit, which has unleashed a storm of negative online coverage nationwide. If you’d like to read more about this jaw-droppingly bad PR case, check out the Checkmate Public Affairs Blog, written by my friend and associate Jeff Chatterton.
JB
Jonathan Bernstein
https://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/