KHSB Action News

http://www.kshb.com/dpp/sports/footb...witter-message

Chiefs apologize after Twitter message to fan goes viral
By: Annie Greenberg

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Kansas City Chiefs may have messed with the wrong guy.

A direct message from the official @kcchiefs Twitter account to an angry fan ignited a social media firestorm Tuesday, underscoring the viral nature of this digital age.

Travis Wright, a global social media manager based in Kansas City, tweeted a gripe about the Chiefs' low payroll spending on Monday night. The next day, he posted the following direct message he received from the team's official Twitter account (pictured above):

"Would help if you had your facts straight. Your choice to be a fan. cc get a clue"

Wright posted the screengrab of the message on several social media sites Tuesday, including Reddit, where the thread received over 50 comments within the first hour.

The Chiefs tweeted the following apology late Tuesday afternoon:

I apologize to the fans for my response to a tweet sent to me earlier. No excuse for my actions. I am truly sorry and it won't happen again.

A team spokesman confirmed that the apology was in relation to the exchange with Wright, and said an employee in the social media department acknowledged making a mistake. They declined to provide further comment.

But Wright wasn't even aware of the apology tweet until a Reddit user pointed it out. The Chiefs blocked his account, @teedubya, on Twitter after the exchange Monday night.

He said that as of early Tuesday evening, he was still blocked.

"The funny thing about (the apology) is that I personally didn't see it," Wright said. "They didn't apologize to me, they apologized to everyone else because of the backlash."

Wright said that as the social media manager for a Fortune 500 company, he has to deal with disgruntled customers on an almost daily basis. While it is easy to get frustrated, he explained that he knows he's the voice of a billion-dollar brand, and makes sure he represents it properly.

"That's why I made a big stink about it," he said. "I'm not trying to get the guy (who sent me the message) fired, I' m trying to get them to understand they can't treat their fans with contempt."

Of all the fans the Chiefs could have riled up, Wright was probably not the best choice. With more than 123,400 Twitter followers -- compared to the Chiefs' 107,600 -- he has a larger audience than the team.

Wright, who is from Butler, Mo., and now lives in Lee's Summit, said he has been a Chiefs fan his whole life and has gone to more than 100 games.

He hopes the Chiefs learn from this experience.

"In the Twitter age, everyone has an audience -- mine happens to be over 120,000," he said. "Now, every voice can be heard."
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TW is a smart guy but I dunno if I would be comfy with this exposure.
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As long as he represents himself well publicly, it is GREAT exposure.
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well I guess he did that well?
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He's a douche, but that is prety cool.
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I followed up with PFT and sent along the KSHB story.

Teedubya's career makes this story A LOT more intriguing.
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Agree wholeheartedly. This story is picking up some major traction.
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The NFL will attempt to squash it if it gets too big. I was hoping someone would break out with an attempt to uncover the shit that went on when Haley was fired last year. Would love to see that re-opened and investigated
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You're all assuming most people will be outraged by it though. If you look at KSHB's facebook page post with this article... it looks like it's about 50/50, and a fair number of people are applauding the Chiefs for defending themselves.
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Damn homers
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Yeah, that's the issue. The original tweet wasn't exactly friendly and the original point (Chiefs are cheap) is at least somewhat debatable.
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They are.

http://deadspin.com/5930727/?utm_cam...ium=socialflow


Just for doing that they owe it to the fans for putting a better product on the field.
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'Outraged' is a bit strong... I think it's hilarious that someone in charge of social media for one of the most clueless teams in the NFL told a fan to get a clue. I think those who are defending the Chiefs wouldn't feel the same way if they told a cashier at a retail store that a product was overpriced and was told to get a clue.

It's not like Chiefs fans don't have 1000 other reasons to never spend another dollar on the the Chiefs or be angry at the organization, or had no previous suspicion that the management only cares about winning to the extent that it'll make them more money.


Really? :-)
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..."however, things being what they are, you guys might want to grab an umbrella."
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You'd think a social media expert would keep his screen name on a message board separate from his real name.
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