This week AdAge released their list of the biggest social media blunders of 2011 and it was truly a banner year for the misguided. This year’s list includes a politician, an actor, a comedian and several major brands (see below).
1. Twitter Contest “Grounded†– Australian airline Qantas launched a Twitter contest in November asking followers to share their dream luxury in-flight experience using #QantasLuxury. Unfortunately customers angry from the prior month’s grounded flights hijacked the contest’s hashtag by tweeting out thousands of angry responses.
2. GoDaddy Finds Itself Staring At The End Of A Barrel – After GoDaddy’s CEO Bob Parsons tweeted a video link of himself shooting an elephant in Zimbabwe, the company found itself in hot water. This resulted in the Ethical Treatment of Animals calling for a boycott and competitors offering discounted transfer rates.
Top Lessons Learned From This Year’s Biggest Social Media Failures
Think Before You Tweet – This should be a no-brainer however the nature of Twitter’s fast moving conversations can result in users tweeting out messages they later regret. If you are going to participate in Twitter be sure to review these best practices.
Brands Don’t Own Earned Media – The call it “earned media†for a reason and it is very difficult for brands to try and control this especially on Twitter.
Read more on these lessons and the top 10 social media blunders of 2011 at business2community.
Tags: advertising, brand, Social media, Twitter
