Three major business social media mistakes

Posted By: Marshall

Social media can be great tools for businesses, but they have their limitations. Sometimes businesses approach Twitter, Facebook, blogs, viral videos and the lot as if they were some sort of free advertising. As you can imagine, that never works out too well. Here are some of the most gut-wrenchingly embarrassing mistakes from businesses on social media.

1. Fake Blogs

Perhaps the best known fake blog is All I Want for Christmas is a PSP (alliwantforxmasisapsp.com, currently abandoned). Sony caught tons of flak for their attempt to manipulate, as did the ad agency that came up with the idea, Zipatoni.

The blog went down in 2006, but the social media blog Search Views has documented the angry comments from jilted blog readers. This is my favorite from a guy name D-Stab:

“I doubt this message will reach whoever it needs to, but Sony desperately needs to stop hiring these bozos to do their marketing. This website is as bad as the PS 3 baby ads, which are as bad as the PSP dust ball ads, which are worse than the most annoying Old Navy ad you could possibly think of.”

More annoying than an Old Navy ad. Ouch. It’s gets worse, or better, if you’re into the whole schadenfreude thing. The ad agency fake bloggers tried to protest their innocence by writing a 13-year-old on meth:

“You all is haters tymes 4. Dis is lee-git. Don’t know why youse thinks this is a schill. Are site was registered through an external provider. We don’t work for sony. And for all you dissin’ my skillz I’m down for a one on one rap off or settling it street stylez if you feel me playa. Teh. …”

Other companies have tried the fake blog thing including Walmart and McDonalds. The lesson here is not to insult your customers’ intelligence. If you’re faking buzz about your product, you will eventually be caught. The end result is that you will have completely insulted your base. Social media is not a free pass to lie and manipulate.

2. Viral Video Fail

Everyone wants a viral video. It sounds so easy. You just make a video, and then you make it viral. Of course it’s never that simple. To be effective, viral videos must be salient, extremely memorable, and brand appropriate. One of the best bad examples of a business trying, and failing, with a viral video has to be Quiznos and the 2 Girls 1 Sub video. According to Social Business blogger Jennifer Legio, Quiznos may have had nothing to do with this ad. Let’s hope that’s true.

Why was it so bad? Well, it was a parody of an adult video called 2 Girls 1 Cup, which according to TheFrisky.com is “the most grossest, disgustingest pornographic video ever made.” Anybody hungry?

So, while the 2 Girls 1 Sub viral video was salient and extremely memorable, it was absolutely not brand appropriate. The lesson here is that social media is not an amoral playground. People still get offended and grossed out. In getting attention for your business, you also have to make sure it’s the right kind of attention. Otherwise you end up like that kid in elementary school who would eat anything on a dare.

3. Spamming

It’s important for businesses to realize that there are real people behind all the avatars and profile pics on social media sites. It’s not some vast wasteland of white noise and product placement. The most recent failure in this regard comes from HabitatUK, which is apparently a sort of upscale IKEA for home furniture.

This company got on Twitter and immediately started using hash tags, which are used to identify important topics, to spam everybody and their dog. According to SocialMediaToday.com, HabitatUK used hash tags like #apple and #iPhone to announce that their spring selection is now 20% off.

You can imagine the response on Twitter. The word “spammer!” was used more than once. What we learn here is to always, always, always, remember that real people are on the other end of the computer screen. Don’t spam, don’t manipulate, don’t lie.

Social media is an exciting area that has a lot of opportunity for two-way communication in marketing. The temptation to manipulate, however, can ruin your company’s brand entirely. Use social media responsibly.