Learn From The Mistakes Of Others

Expect social media to be a strong presence in 2009 despite a movement from users to pull back on full disclosure of their lives. Marketers will also continue to explore their sweet spot within this heavily peer regulated environment. To help you on your journey, the following is a smorgasbord of examples, lists and links of what NOT to do in social media.

Besides collecting lists of Social Media Case Studies for my Superlist of Social Media Case Studies, I’ve also been collecting links about Social Media mistakes, failures, blunders and no-no’s. Since my Superlist of Social Media Case Studies has proven so popular (and since Jacob Morgan suggested a Superlist of social media failures would be helpful), I thought I’d take a crack at starting to pull together this type of list (Anti-casestudies?) with the articles I have so far.

Have any more case studies lists or good articles/posts on social media mistakes, no-no’s, failures or bad ideas? Feel free to add them here in the comments!

Superlist of What Not to Do in Social Media http://tinyurl.com/6rahtu

• A Chronology of Brands that Got Punk’d by Social Media by Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang

From brand backlash to brandjacking, a list of companies who were blindsided by social media by year including the now infamous case of the Motrin Moms.

• Ad Age Video: Social Media Mistakes of Five Big Marketers

8 minutes video of speech given by Joseph Jaffe, head of the marketing consulting firm Crayon, at the Association of National Advertisers’ Integrated Marketing conference. From faking to manipulating to controlling, Jaffe criticizes the social media programs of 5 major marketers including Target and Starbucks.

• Mashable’s Biggest Mistakes Made by Social Media Gurus

A list of errors in judgment from the people who should know better- top notch social media all stars. A couple of notable blunders - assuming social media doesn’t exist until you arrive and posting a comment on your own Facebook wall.

• How to Commit Social Media Suicide by Socialmediatrader.com

A list of some of ways you can ensure that your content fails on social media sites from ignoring criticism about your website to selfishly promoting only your own content.

• Six Stupid Marketing Mistakes by Adam Broitman

Great article that talks about mistakes made in social media and interactive marketing campaigns with some good examples. Includes solid constructive critiques of several social media initiatives including British Airways’ Twitter presence and Slurpee’s social network, Slurpee Nation.

• Ignite Social Media’s 6 Part Video Series: Social Media Marketing Mistakes And How to Avoid Them

Part 1 Not Listening. Not Responding. Not Good
Part 2: Schmoozing Instead of Connecting
Part 3: No Transparency, No Authenticity
Part 4: Social Media As A Channel, Not A Conversation
Part 5: Applying traditional marketing tactics to social media marketing
Part 6: Thinking anyone cares about your brand

• Corporate Missteps from Frymaster Speck

Examples of 5 companies who thought they could control information on the Web but found out that they couldn’t including Whole Foods CEO John Mackey’s blogging well-publicized blogging fiasco.

• 6 Stupid Mistakes Companies Make with Their Online Communities from CIO.com

Nice discussion of 6 ways companies often show that ” ‘doing community’ doesn’t mean ‘doing community well’ ” — from trying to control the conversation too closely (e.g. removing all criticism) to forgetting that volunteer participants are part of your company’s community.

• Video: “Avoiding Disaster: How Not to Use Social Media” Panel at Blog World & New Media Expo 2008

5 Part video series can be found on YouTube as part of Managing Communities’ YouTube Channel. Here’s the first part: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eP4s5NtKKw&eurl=http://www.interactiveinsightsgroup.com/blog1/superlist_of_what_not_to_do_in_social_media/


• Deadly Sins of Social Media from Room 214

From Pride to Sloth to Greed to Gluttony, this post (also available in PDF form) is an entertaining take on what not to do in Social Media.

• 10 Social Media Blunders that Can Destroy Your Brand from Sparkplugging.com

From submitting every single post you’ve ever read (or written) to social bookmarking sites to being a copycat - a collection of short and to-the-point advice for entrepreneurs and small businesses on how not to use social media.

• Tamar Weinberg’s The Ultimate Social Media Etiquette Handbook

A great rundown of no-no’s in social media etiquette you want to avoid on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media sites.

• The Twitter Hall of Shame: 50 Tweets That Will Echo in History from InsideCRM.com

• 8 Sure-Fire Ways To Tick Off the Twitterverse
  by Jenny Cromie on a guest post on Twitips.com. Here Jenny explores 8 sure ways to tick off other Twitter users from being a TwitterNarcissist to being a TwitterDumbLinker.

Source - iia