The MLB’s San Diego Padres became a cautionary tale on how not to manage your team’s social media account.
At the challenge of fellow brand Budweiser over the weekend, the Padres (meaning “fathers”) decided to rebrand themselves on Twitter as the @Madres (meaning “mothers”), in honor of Mother’s Day.
The problem with the change is that the team gave up its @Padres handle, which was then quickly snapped up by another user.
”@padres we have a proposition for you: if you change your name to the San Diego Madres for #MothersDay, we’ll do something special for Padres fans at your next home game. Deal? #FriarFaithful,” Budweiser tweeted.
.@padres we have a proposition for you: if you change your name to the San Diego Madres for #MothersDay, we’ll do something special for Padres fans at your next home game. Deal? #FriarFaithful pic.twitter.com/KqSwFa6Q3u
— Budweiser (@budweiserusa) May 11, 2019
According to Yahoo Sports, the official account of Budweiser USA tweeted a picture of a Padres jersey, which had been modified to read ‘Madres’ across the front. After the Padres accepted Budweiser’s offer, Ricky Padilla picked up the @Padres handle in the few hours that it was left vacant by the baseball team. In that time, Padilla answered a few questions about the team and offered tickets to one user.
Twitter appears to have stepped in to save the day, returning the @Padres handle to its rightful owner. After a few hours of redirecting to a “does not exist page,” the page appears to be back under the control of its rightful owner.
For his part, Padilla tweeted later that all he wanted “was some tickets.” The @Padres organization later responded with, “Hi Ricky, thanks for keeping @Padres safe this morning. We'd love to invite you and your Madre and Padre to a game when the team is back in town. Check your DMs!”
Hi Ricky, thanks for keeping @Padres safe this morning. We'd love to invite you and your Madre and Padre to a game when the team is back in town. Check your DMs!
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) May 12, 2019
