Social Media Blunders: We Know Better

I read with some relish this piece posted today from SmartBrief on Social Media:
The Suxorz pick the worst social media moves of 2010.

I can't help it, I love to see the bad. I learn so much from it.


Remember Cisco's "Ted from Accounting"? Barely, right? It was their lame attempt to mimic Old Spice's brilliant campaign where Ismail Mustafa made videos on the fly based on tweeted suggestions.

Did you hear about Denny's asking their customers to "join the conversation"--by directing their customers to an abandoned Twitter account held by a boy in Taiwan? Anyone can make an error, but it took Denny's many months to even notice their mistake.

My favorite blunder? The Price Chopper grocery store complained to a customer's boss when she complained about the store on their Facebook page. Yikes!

As I read about these beautiful losers, I couldn't help but think that we know better here. I thought of the monthly program we had a couple years ago with Katie Elfering from Iconoculture, who taught us viral videos can be nurtured, but never controlled. And while entering social media is nerve wracking, Liz Giorgi reminded us at a social media brown bag that we have to let the audience have their say and police themselves--there is no absolute control, and that's ok. The benefits outweigh the risk.

And finally, we don't need a monthly program to tell us to check our work. The Denny's mistake is hysterical because their real Twitter accounts are much longer than simply @dennys, and they just simply didn't notice or bother to correct their mistake. We know better: check, test, recheck, retest. Then click send.