I couldn't resist talking about this tweet after hearing about it yesterday while I was watching MNBC from the stairclimber at the gym.
personally, I don't find it THAT offensive. NY wants to elect a man named Weiner who showed his weiner to the public via twitter. that, I find offensive. what Kenneth posted may have been in bad taste, but, who cares?
the way I see it, everyone was doing their job. a soldier's job is to protect their country - and sometimes that means putting boots on the ground in foreign countries where we're not wanted; a president's job is to assuage the fears of his nation by either supporting a "boots on the ground" strategy or vehemently denying there is such a strategy at all; and a designer's job is to sell clothes.
kenneth cole has always kind of been a shirt stirrer, right? he likes to get people talking - and this tweet certainly got people talking - and retweeting - and maybe even shopping.
the problem with social media is...well...where should I start?
first of all, most Facebook Friends aren’t really friends and most Twitter Followers don’t follow.
second, everyone has an opinion (or an agenda, or something to sell).
third, we all struggle to censor ourselves from time-to-time.
so when a a public platform like twitter gives a megaphone to people like Weiner and Cole and they say or do something dumb (intentional or not) it's like the 3:00 bell that starts a schoolyard fight. the classrooms empty and the grass under the bleachers explodes with fist fights. everyone suddenly has a position to defend. and then after a couple days someone else says or does something stupid and your 15 minutes of ill-begotten fame is over.
the question is, does this hurt or help Cole?
remember the old adage? no publicity is bad publicity. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that that phrase still holds water. there are literally hundreds - if not thousands - of examples of people and products who have whether "bad publicity" and came out stronger for it.
look at that whole Chick-fil-A debacle. they recorded their highest sales ever on the day gay rights activists staged a protest against their restaurant.
Chick-fil-A certainly didn't mean to offend the gay community and it was a slight PR disaster - but the upside is that the authenticity of their brand solidified their most loyal stakeholders and earned them new business from diners who shared their same values. if it wasn't for social media, word of Chick-fil-A's "foot-in-mouth" moment wouldn't have been able to spread like it did.
where I see social media failing is in not being controversial enough. middle of the road stuff isn't going to move the needle.
imagine if Cole's tweet had read like this: "this season's pumps, sandals and loafers on sale now" do you really think it would have been retweeted 524 times? do you think I'd be writing about it?
I am attracted to brands that have personality. I am attracted to brands that are real. I am attracted to people who make mistakes. perfect people and brands are boring.
but that doesn't mean you should use social media to be a jerk-off on purpose or without a set of authentic values that your customers can easily align themselves with when shit hits the fan.
if you're going to use social media keep the following in mind:
- you want to have a dialog - not a one-way conversation
- not everyone will support your position
- if you get criticism (and you will) use it to improve your product, not launch a defensive attack
- be entertaining (but tasteful)
- make statements that support your value proposition
and now back to what I was doing on this computer before this whole 'boots on ground' conversation - I saw Macy's was having a sale on these really cute Kenneth Cole sandals. 
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