The seasonal John Lewis Twitter confusion

Posted by Joshua Nutt on 8th November 2016

I’ll openly admit that I’m a bit of a Grinch come Christmas time, and don’t usually get into the festivities until a week before the big day.

One thing that is thrown up every Christmas that does put a smile on my face is a regular Twitter gaffe that people constantly make. And, the response it gets.

John Lewis, the retail store giant, has become quite famous in recent years for creating signature Christmas adverts that often signal the ‘start of Christmas’. This year’s Christmas advert is expected to arrive on our screens on Thursday the 10th of November and will see a flurry of social media activity upon its release.

Expect to see lots of social media accounts tagging in @JohnLewis in to tweets following the adverts release. There’s one problem though, @JohnLewis isn’t the retail giant but a computer science educator based in Blacksburg, Virginia. The retail store’s Twitter is @JohnLewisRetail, but that doesn’t stop numerous people getting it wrong every year.

Thankfully stateside John Lewis takes his seasonal barrage of Twitter mentions with some great dry humour and often directs incorrect tweeters onto the correct account.

John has gained himself 18,000 followers over the years on the back of his witty responses and the father-of-four has no intention of changing his Twitter handle to avoid the confusion. The retail giant actually sent him a telescope, on the back of the man on the moon Christmas advert, as a reward for him redirecting the tweets and not abusing his position of power. A great bit of PR from John Lewis.

I would definitely recommend a follow to @JohnLewis, he’s one of the rare Twitter gems.