A Couple of Tools Named "Mike" (What Should Craftsman Do?)

So, I'm scanning through a few of my favorite Facebook fan pages this morning and I came across this lovely little conversation taking place over on the Craftsman Facebook fan page. It started out harmless enough, then a fella by the name "Mike" went off the rails with a pretty sexist statement. Needless to say, this was like kicking open an bed of fire-ants. What surprised me was that later on another fella named "Mike" popped in and supported the original Mike's statements.

I've captured the conversation here, and created a color-key so you can see the "Mikes" in question (I'm sure the conversation is still growing, so pop on over to the Craftsman Facebook fan page to follow along).

(CLICK THE PICTURE FOR LARGER VIEW)

I see this sort of thing happen a lot, and I'm always curious to see how brands such as Craftsman will handle themselves. Do they get involved? Kill the conversation? Take a stance? Or will they simply hope that the conversation will fizzle out? I think doing nothing can be just as dangerous for the brand as doing something.

I'd be very curious to know you folks think about this. What do you think Craftsman should do in a Social Media situation like this? I think this is an important question to ask, especially for those in business who have put their feet in the Social Media waters. It definitely reminds me of these slides from a few of my presentations...

From the presentation "My Tweet Story"

From the presentation "Social-lite"

From the presentation "I.D. Thy Self"

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