How to apologise on social media

What do you do when you screw up massively on social media and, say, confuse Oprah Winfrey with Whoopi Goldberg?

This was the question Dr Mumbo pondered while waiting to see how US beauty site Total Beauty would respond to its erroneous Oscars tweet – “We had no idea @oprah was tatted, and we love it. #oscars – posting a photo of Whoopi Goldberg instead of Oprah, at an event criticised for its lack of black nominees.

In a demonstration of how brands should apologise when they make a mistake, Total Beauty subsequently deleted the Oprah/Goldberg tweet and then tweeted an apology.

“We’d like to apologize to Oprah and Whoopi, as well as everyone we’ve offended. It was our error, and there are no excuses. We’re sorry,” the brand posted.