Is it possible for a company to diffuse a PR controversy in 140 characters or less?

This is what we’re wondering after a rogue employee apparently hijacked Vodafone UK’s Twitter feed and fired off the following Tweet to its 8,800 followers: “VodafoneUK is fed up of dirty homo’s and is going after beaver.” Vodafone responded by direct-messaging anyone who may have seen the offending message. The Guardian, for one, called it a “grovelling apology.”

The fuss that kicked up serves as a fresh lesson in how companies still need pointers on dealing with corporate Twitter abuse.

Points to Vodafone for responding both quickly and to every one of its followers, regardless of whether they even saw the offending Tweet. But still, the incident is yet another embarrassing reminder that the corporate comms team need to adopt internal procedures, replete with a style guide, to deal with miscreant Tweets, whether they be from a disgruntled employee or, as was first presumed, from a hacker. Lastly, in case there were any doubts after Habitat UK’s “overenthusiastic intern” incident, it speaks of the crucial need to keep the keys to the Twitter account in trusted hands.

By today, the matter appears to have blown over; there were just two Tweets about it in the past 24 hours.