JPMorgan's Twitter Q&A Blows Up In Its Face

Company cancels it before it even begins amidst cavalcade of mockery, rage
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 14, 2013 7:00 AM CST
Updated Nov 14, 2013 7:19 AM CST
JPMorgan's Twitter Q&A Blows Up In Its Face
A screenshot of JPMorgan's Twitter page.   (Twitter)

We're going to go ahead and guess that JPMorgan's social media staff is getting an earful today. Fresh from helping Twitter launch its IPO, the company announced that Vice Chairman Jimmy Lee would be holding a Twitter Q&A today, urging people to tweet questions with the #AskJPM hashtag. Questions started pouring in yesterday—but they probably weren't the kind JPMorgan was hoping for. Examples include:

  • "At what number of Billions of Dollars in fines will it no longer be profitable to run your criminal enterprise? #askjpm" (link)
  • "Do you have a secret jail in your offices so your executives get at least one chance to see the inside of one? #AskJPM" (link)
  • "I have Mortgage Fraud, Market Manipulation, Credit Card Abuse, Libor Rigging and Predatory Lending AM I DIVERSIFIED? #AskJPM" (link)
  • "Would you rather negotiate with 1 horse-sized Eric Holder, or 100 duck-sized Eric Holders? #AskJPM" (link)
  • "As a young sociopath, how can I succeed in finance? #AskJPM" (link)
  • "Are you involved in a massive corruption scandal in China? #AskJPM" (link)
  • "#askJPM Does getting roasted on social media feel too harsh a penalty for rigging #LIBOR? Will you lobby Congress to regulate Twitter?" (link)
  • "What's your favorite type of whale? #AskJPM" (link)

The company beat its retreat and cancelled the Q&A before Lee had answered a single question. "#Badidea! Back to the drawing board!" a spokesman said in an email to the New York Times. At least 8,000 tweets were sent using the hashtag, and at least two-thirds of them were negative, the Twitter analysis firm Topsy tells the Financial Times. "I think companies sometimes forget that social media belongs to the people," one e-marketing analyst said. "Consumers have control beyond their wildest expectations." (More Twitter stories.)

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