Twitter's Three Biggest Fails: 2012 Edition

Arielle Castro | @_ArielleHope When your company makes the decision to utilize social media for its consumer benefits and brand awareness there are some risks that come with the package. Take Twitter for example, with 500 million users it’s easy to see the value of using its platform to reach increase relationships between a brand and its consumers.

However, sometimes ideas or promotions just don’t go the way one would hope. Here are a few Twitter fails from 2012 that may help businesses see the value of a dedicated team of social media experts.

McDonald’s #McDStories

In January McDonald’s decided pay for a Twitter hashtag promotion to increase consumer relations and share food favorites and memories at the worldwide fast food chain. However, their plan backfired when the stories coming in were mostly negative. Needless to say, they took down the promotion after two hours.

Aurora Shooting Insensitivity

When the July shooting at a theater in Aurora, Colorado first made headlines many individuals took to Twitter to display their condolences and question how a madman could open fire in a family theater. Not everyone though, remained up-to-date on the disaster. An online shop, Celeb Boutique, took notice of the #Aurora trend circling twitter and issued this tweet shortly following which drew in a angry reponse from their followers:

Hurricane Sandy Promotions

Hurrican Sandy has been named largest hurricane to hit the Atlantic coast in history. Many celebrities and brands issued concern and sought to raise awareness and money for relief funds via Twitter. Some brands, on the other hand, used this time to increase sales and promotions:

Many times, those individuals in charge of managing a company’s Twitter account may often find themselves imposing their personal views on the brands social interactions, or misunderstand the short amount a time a message can go viral via sites like Twitter.

There were many social media fails in 2012 which could have been prevented with the right strategies and experience from the team running a brand’s social media. Don’t let your company be one that gets slammed for being insensitive, or unprofessional when it comes to sharing with the social media world.

Here at Social Media Delivered we have a number of social media services including training and consulting which can help drive your company in the right direction.