Just before Christmas Justine Sacco received an early, and unexpected, present for Christmas.

After a 16 hour flight she was fired from her job upon landing in South Africa. Her crime: a tweet. 

Flying high

On December 21 Sacco was about to board a flight from London to South Africa when she sent a tweet to her 4300 followers that read: “Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!”

The tweet soon went viral and while Sacco was oblivious in the air #HasJustineLandedYet became the most popular hashtag on Twitter. One enterprising wag even established the URL justinesacco.com which redirected traffic to an Aid for Africa website. 

To make matters worse Sacco worked as a PR executive for media company IAC, whose clients include Vimeo, Tinder and About.com. She had posted tweets of questionable taste in the past. 

IAC soon released a statement distancing itself from Sacco's statements, her name was scrubbed from IAC's website and her Twitter account was deleted. 

This did nothing to damper the fervour and once Sacco had landed she discovered her services were no longer required at IAC. 

While it's tempting to conclude that Sacco got her just desserts, there is are lessons in her story that every social user should heed.

1. Personal is not personal

Yes you may have a personal Twitter account, but if your employer is listed on your bio any tweet can be linked to them. While adding the standard disclaimer “opinions are my own” is a nice touch, it won't count for much if you're caught in a full blown crisis.

Remember, personal means professional.

2. Rapid response

One of the reasons Sacco's story spun out of control was the fact she was unreachable to explain her comments. If Sacco had been able to reply the public response may well have been muted. 

The lesson is simple: response time is critical. 

3. Have a backup plan

There will always be times when you're unreachable. During these times make sure someone else, ideally a colleague, has access to your social media channels.

That way if a crisis erupts you'll be in a better position to control the fallout and avoid doing a 'Sacco'.

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