How to apologize for a negative social media post

 | On Twitter, it can be really , really hard to say you're sorry. This lesson has been learned time and again by people who use social media, including the growing number of people

over 50 who have joined in the conversation. This might be familiar to you: The anger at reading something infuriating, the shoot-from-the-hip response, the sudden escalation into a

"flame war" and the realization that perhaps those flames need dousing. And don't think that deleting the comment or tweet will solve the problem. Social media is forever.

Tweets can be recovered, posts on other platforms can be screen-grabbed before you can delete what you wrote, and you never know when a wandering online robot or follower might just save

what you've posted. "Erased" social media posts can get reposted by others ... and reposted ... and re-reposted. So what do you do when your flaming post suddenly starts a

back blaze that's pointed at you? Honesty is a good place to start. Consider the case of Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes — someone who should understand the perils of popping off on social

media better than most people. His company creates a popular software package that allows users to monitor and schedule posts on multiple social media platforms through a single interface,

so you might think he knew what he was getting into when he got into a little online tête-à-tête earlier this year with a Bloomberg News reporter. After Bloomberg published a story about

Hootsuite's valuation, Holmes complained in a tweet that the story had been filed prior to getting a comment from Hootsuite and that its headline was "salacious." The reporter

responded, saying he had reached out to Holmes and that he'd still like to talk. Holmes tweeted back a phone number — for a phone sex service. BuzzFeed found out about it, and you can

pretty much guess what happened from there. Suddenly, Holmes was in a very bad place. He knew it and took action.