Bill Chamberlin, Principal Client Analyst, Market Insights
12 July 2011
Social Media 101: Social Media Disasters
Examples of how social media efforts can backfire
© 2011 IBM Corporation
IBM Market Insights
About This Presentation
 This deck provides a summary of 14 examples of social media
projects that went wrong along with advice on how to reduce the risk
of having a bad example yourself.
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July 12, 2011
Social Media 101: Social Media Disasters
© 2011 IBM Corporation
IBM Market Insights
Table of Contents
 Summary
 Fourteen Examples of Social Media Disasters
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
Dell
Denny's
CVS Pharmacy
Price Chopper
Nestle
Kenneth Cole
Cisco
Habitat
Chrysler
Honda
Johnson & Johnson
Dominos
Ryanair
United Airlines
 Additional Reading
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Social Media 101: Social Media Disasters
© 2011 IBM Corporation
IBM Market Insights
Summary: Why These Examples Made The Disaster List
 Lack of corporate social media policies
 Lack of real-time monitoring
 Not responding to customer concerns
 Employees not trained in company policies
 Lack of professional Social Media managers
 Too much focus on self-promotion (lack of relationship building)
 Lack of due diligence before launching social campaigns
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Social Media 101: Social Media Disasters
© 2011 IBM Corporation
IBM Market Insights
Summary: Key Learnings From These Examples
 Having a social media presence that represents your brand means
responding quickly and directly.
 You need to plan for the worst while expecting the best.
 A professional and responsible manager should be in charge of all
communication on the various sites and this person should be very well
versed on the many risks of social media.
 All employees are potential spokesmen for your brand. They (including
executives) should be trained in the basics of good and bad social media
communications
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Social Media 101: Social Media Disasters
© 2011 IBM Corporation
IBM Market Insights
The 2005 Dell example, perhaps the most famous, started with blog
post from an influential blogger, Jeff Jarvis
June 21, 2005
Dell lies. Dell sucks. Dell lies. Dell sucks
I just got a new Dell laptop and paid a fortune for the four-year, in-home
service.
The machine is a lemon and the service is a lie.
I'm having all kinds of trouble with the hardware: overheats, network doesn't
work, maxes out on CPU usage. It's a lemon.
But what really irks me is that they say if they sent someone to my home -which I paid for -- he wouldn't have the parts, so I might as well just send the
machine in and lose it for 7-10 days -- plus the time going through this crap. So I
have this new machine and paid for them to F****ING FIX IT IN MY HOUSE
and they don't and I lose it for two weeks.
DELL SUCKS. DELL LIES. Put that in your Google and smoke it, Dell.
Posted by jarvis at 09:48 PM | Comments (253)
Source:
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http://www.buzzmachine.com/archives/cat_dell.html
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Social Media 101: Social Media Disasters
© 2011 IBM Corporation
IBM Market Insights
Dell did not respond promptly to blogger Jarvis or the thousands of
people who were reading his blog
 By not responding promptly, the social
media flames were fueled hotter.
 Jeff Jarvis called his experience “Dell Hell”.
As time when on, when you Googled “Dell”,
Jarvis’s “Dell Hell” blog posts came up on
the top of the Google results.
 His widely circulated criticism triggered
dozens of other bloggers and hundreds of
people to leave comments …publicly
complaining about Dell Service.
Key Learnings:
 Dell learned from this experience. They
retooled their customer service operations
and launch3e a social media operations
capability that monitors social conversations
in real time.
• Failing to respond quickly can hurt your
brand’s reputation.
 By October 2007, Jeff Jarvis was impressed
with Dell enough to write an article in
Business Week Dell Learns to Listen.
• In the end, blogged complaints like Jarvis'
can do as much damage as a negative
advertising campaign.
• Dell’s story is great because it is not only
example of a company that failed, but shows
you how a company can learn from it’s
mistakes. Today Dell is known as a company
that understands how to leverage social
media for customer service
Source: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=33307
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Social Media 101: Social Media Disasters
© 2011 IBM Corporation
IBM Market Insights
Denny’s menu’s pointed people to an incorrect Twitter ID
 Denny’s printed up thousands of new menus,
including a link to their Twitter ID, Facebook
account, and .com site
 The menus were distributed to over 1,500
restaurants last year.
 The Twitter ID pointed customers to
www.twitter.com/dennys, which is owned by a
boy in Taiwan named Denny.
 The error was uncovered last November, but
many menus apparently have not been
replaced.
Key Learnings:
 Have social media managers approve and test
out all customer deliverables
 Search social media platforms for your brand
names and related keywords. Know what is
out there.
Source: http://consumerist.com/2010/02/dennys-really-wants-you-to-follow-this-taiwanese-twitter-account.html
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Social Media 101: Social Media Disasters
© 2011 IBM Corporation
IBM Market Insights
CVS Pharmacy “CVS_Cares” Twitter ID was established, but it was
locked private for a number of weeks
 CVS Pharmacy set up a Twitter ID for
CVS_Cares and asked customers to send
messages, suggestions and feedback.
 The Twitter ID was locked, requiring people
to ‘request’ to follow.
 A locked Twitter stream for a Community
Manager is not only an oxymoron, it’s one
of the Internet’s silliest moves, perhaps
ever.
Key Learnings:
 Fully test out all social media platforms and
properties before launching
 It’s been fixed now, but the hit on the brand
for something like this can be costly
Source: http://www.whatsnextblog.com/2011/01/cvs_cares-on-twitter-one-of-the-internets-dumbest-moves-perhaps-ever/
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Social Media 101: Social Media Disasters
© 2011 IBM Corporation
IBM Market Insights
Supermarket chain Price Chopper Customer Service employee gets
into a tweeting dispute with one of their customers
 A customer posted a tweet that criticized the supermarket chain.
“Every time I go into a @PriceChopperNY I realize why they are
not @Wegmans. Tonight — bare produce areas”
 A representative of Price Chopper’s customer service department
saw the tweet and contacted the customer’s employer (which was
mentioned in the individual’s Twitter bio) and asked that he be
disciplined.
 The dispute went viral after an influential friend of the customer
blogged about it. “Price Chopper Attacks Customer’s Job Over
Negative Tweet” resulting in a lot of bad press for Price Chopper.
Key Learnings:
 All employees should go through social media training and be
taught how to respond to negative comments posted in the social
media.
 Real-time social media listening tools can catch negative
comments as they happen and trained customer service
personnel can respond on behalf of the company
Source: http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/09/syracuse_area_critic_of_price.html
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Social Media 101: Social Media Disasters
© 2011 IBM Corporation
IBM Market Insights
Greenpeace battles Nestle on YouTube, Twitter and on
Facebook….
 Greenpeace launched a campaign against Nestle
KitKat procuring palm oil from suppliers who are
“destroying the Indonesian rainforests, threatening the
livelihoods of local people and pushing orang-utans
towards extinction.”
 Nestle tried unsuccessfully to control the conversation.
 The battleground played out on Youtube, then spilled
over into Twitter and Facebook
Key Learnings:
 While brands might be able to control traditional media
platforms, they can’t fully control social media
platforms
A timeline showing how the first four days
of the online PR battle between Nestle and
Greenpeace
http://prezi.com/kmrh4fmlzsen/nestlekerfuffle/
 In social media, power has, in fact, shifted to the
community. Fans and activists can quickly take over
social media properties.
Source: http://adage.com/article/adages/nestle-facebook-fans-embraced/142881/
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© 2011 IBM Corporation
IBM Market Insights
…and Nestle takes out it’s frustration on Facebook, which is heard
by the entire 90,000 Nestle fans….then it goes viral to the world
 Greenpeace visitors posted with altered
Nestle logos to Facebook
 Nestle responded "We welcome your
comments, but please don't post using an
altered version of any of our logos as
your profile pic -- they will be deleted."
 A firestorm erupted on Facebook and
then Twitter where millions were exposed
to the negativity
Key Learnings:
 Social media is about embracing your
market – the good and the bad.
 Employees should be guided to engage,
debate positively, and have a
conversation rather than preaching or
trying to control the conversations.
Source: http://adage.com/article/adages/nestle-facebook-fans-embraced/142881/
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Social Media 101: Social Media Disasters
© 2011 IBM Corporation
IBM Market Insights
Designer Kenneth Cole tried to leverage the uprising in Egypt to
market his spring collection of clothes
 Although trying to be humorous, his tweet
made light of a very serious situation in
Egypt.
 His tweet went viral. In the hours and
days after his tweet, Twitter was seeing an
estimated 1500 negative responses an
hour.
 Days later, Cole deleted his original tweet
and apologized on his Facebook page “I
apologize to everyone who was offended
by my insensitive tweet about the situation
in Egypt. I’ve dedicated my life to raising
awareness about serious social issues,
and in hindsight my attempt at humor
regarding a nation liberating themselves
against oppression was poorly timed and
absolutely inappropriate.”
Key Learnings:
• You only have 140 characters in
Twitter. Hard to combine humor and
sensitivity into a marketing message
• Sometimes the tone of your message
does not get through on Twitter.
• All employees should undergo Social
Media training, even executives
Source: http://blogs.forbes.com/markpasetsky/2011/02/03/news_kenneth_cole_egypt_tweet_19871/
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Social Media 101: Social Media Disasters
© 2011 IBM Corporation
IBM Market Insights
Cisco: Attempt at making viral videos spoofing Old Spice campaign
Introducing CiscoSPice
 Cisco attempted to mimic the enormously successful
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmilY1Cno9
Old Spice Campaign. Produced about 10-15
0
CiscoSPice videos
 Instead of using a hot man in a towel, they used “Ted
from Accounting”.
 Cisco fans were encouraged to visit the three different
Cisco Twitter accounts and tweet at Ted with the
hashtag #CiscoSPice.
 Result: Cisco videos fell flat and were made laughing
stock of by marketing and advertising professionals
Key Learnings:
 While this was not a true disaster, it was an illconceived attempt at making a viral video.
Who is Ted from accounting?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmilY1Cno9
0
 The spoof of Old Spice was not relevant to the brand
 Don’t split focus between multiple Twitter accounts.
Source: http://mashable.com/2010/07/28/cisco-old-spice/
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Social Media 101: Social Media Disasters
© 2011 IBM Corporation
IBM Market Insights
@HabitatUK used top trending hashtags in an attempt to get more
people to notice their tweets
 Habitat (a furniture store) tried using top
trending #Hashtags to get noticed by a
wider audience.
 Habitat even used hashtags
#iranianelection and #mousavi)
 The tweets were recognized for what they
were…a spamming technique.
 HabitatUK responded by deleting their
tweets, but never apologized.
Key Learnings:
• Don’t spam. Social Media is about
developing relationships, not spamming
them.
• Apologize when you do something wrong.
Use it as an opportunity to engage in
conversations with those you offended.
Source: http://socialmediatoday.com/SMC/103334
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Social Media 101: Social Media Disasters
© 2011 IBM Corporation
IBM Market Insights
Errant tweet on @ChryslerAutos branded account was caught
quickly, but damage done.
 Offending tweet posted on the
Chrysler Twitter account.
 Chrysler catches it later that same
day, but not until after many other
Twitter users retweet the post.
 Chrysler posts a statement on its
blog that an employee at New Media
Strategies, Chrysler’s social media
agency had posted that tweet. The
post went on to say that the
employee had been terminated and
Chrysler would not be renewing it’s
contract with NMS.
 Fired employee blamed a bug in the
Tweetdeck application, claiming the
post was meant for his personal
account, not Chrysler’s
Key Learnings:
• Best to train your own employee team to
tweet on your behalf.
• If you do use outside agencies, ensure
they are trained as well. Consider having
an approval process in place for all posts.
Source: http://jalopnik.com/#!5780113/chrysler-loses-control-of-twitter-account-drops-f bomb
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© 2011 IBM Corporation
IBM Market Insights
Enthusiastic fan on Honda’s Facebook page turns out to be a
Manager of Product Planning at Honda
 Honda launches Facebook page to
elicit feedback from public on it’s
new Accord Crosstour design.
 While many respondents were
critical of the new design, one fan
seemed to really like it. “Interesting
design, I would get this car in a
heartbeat.”
 Other fans researched the fan and
found he was an employee at
Honda, responsible for product
planning. (see image to right!)
 Media picked up the story,
complete with images of the
exchange.
 Honda issued an apology the next
day, but damage was already done.
Key Learnings:
• Employee training is critical. Employees should be
trained to make sure all posts are transparent and
the public understands their affiliation with their
company.
• Social media participants are smart enough to pick
up on any false representation.
Source: http://www.autoblog.com/2009/09/03/honda-purges-some-comments-from-crosstour-facebook-page/
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© 2011 IBM Corporation
IBM Market Insights
Motrin offended moms with their ads that encouraged women to use
their babies as “fashion accessories”
 Back in Nov. 2008, J&J’s video for the Motrin®
pain killer struck a bad nerve with influential
mommy bloggers.
 The video talked about how most moms find
carrying babies causes them pain…and that
Motrin can help. The ad came off as making fun
of mommies and how they ‘wear their babies”
 Mommy bloggers struck back, saying that
carrying babies is wonderful and does not cause
them pain…that there are many joys of carrying
babies.
 J&J actually responded fairly quickly, taking
down the video the next day and then posting
an apology on the website the following day.
But the story went viral and the message was
that J&J was not aware of how mother’s
perceived the experience of holding and
carrying their babies around.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmykFKjNpdY
Key Learnings:
 Identify and nurture social media
influencers within your target
audience.
 Test campaigns before they are
launched.
Source: Ihttp://www.auburnmedia.com/wordpress/2008/11/17/the-borg-mommy-bloggers-assimilate-johnson-johnson/ and http://www.auburnmedia.com/wordpress/?w6qfpsU1
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© 2011 IBM Corporation
IBM Market Insights
Domino’s employees post disgusting video on YouTube
 Bored Dominos employees not only
decided to film themselves performing
rather unsanitary acts with sandwiches;
they also thought it wise to share their
disgusting exploits with the world on
YouTube.
 The video became a viral hit as the
number of views grew
exponentially….and the national media
picked up the story.
 Dominos did respond. The employees
were fired and a response video was
posted apologizing for the employees
behavior.
 Dominos since has installed real-time
social listening and monitoring software
and has invested in social manager
positions who are active online.
http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/3673-dominos-social-media-mess-3
Key Learnings:
 Your employees represent your brand…so
ensure they have been trained on how to use
(and not use) social media.
 Invest in real-time social media monitoring
tools that track conversations and posts about
your brand
Source: http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/3673-dominos-social-media-mess-3
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© 2011 IBM Corporation
IBM Market Insights
Budget Airliner Ryanair responds to blogger’s post by calling him an
idiot and a liar.
 Technically oriented blogger finds a
programming glitch on Ryanair website and
writes a blog post about it.
 Ryanair staff respond via a comment on the blog
calling the blogger a liar and an idiot among
other things, not once, not twice but three times.
 Then a few days later Ryanair release a
statement: “Ryanair can confirm that a Ryanair
staff member did engage in a blog discussion. It
is Ryanair policy not to waste time and energy in
corresponding with idiot bloggers and Ryanair
can confirm that it won’t be happening again.
Lunatic bloggers can have the blogosphere all to
themselves as our people are far too busy driving
down the cost of air travel.”
 The mass media picked up the story and no
doubt it ended up hurting Ryanair’s brand
Key Learnings:
• Failing to deal with, or worse, dealing
badly with negative online reputation can
blow up in your face. Find ways to turn
negatives into positives
•All employees, including management,
should be trained in external
communications via social media.
• Respond to potentially negative posts in
a positive way and let the poster know
what the company is doing to fix the
problem.
Source: http://www.datadial.net/blog/index.php/2009/02/25/ryanair-is-their-attitude-to-online-pr-part-of-a-bigger-reputation-problem/
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© 2011 IBM Corporation
IBM Market Insights
United fails to respond to musician David Carrol, who then takes his
complaint to YouTube via a music video
 Dave Carrol flew United Airlines with his band. His
$3,500 guitar ended up broken at the hand of United
employees, and the airline offered no compensation
after repeated complaints by Carrol
 He responded by creating a music video about the
experience and posting it on YouTube. He blogged
about it as well “United Breaks Guitars Trilogy”. The
video went viral and was picked up by international
media outlets.
 United experienced very bad press from the video.
Millions of airline travelers identified with Carroll’s
experience.
Key Learnings:
• Failing to deal with customer complaints can lead to frustrated customers taking their cause
to the social media, where often they find sympathetic readers/viewers. Social Media posts
can quickly go viral….and brand reputation can be damaged.
• When negative posts do happen, respond quickly and in a positive way. Let the poster know
what the company is doing to fix the problem.
Source: http://mashable.com/2009/07/15/united-breaks-guitars/
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© 2011 IBM Corporation
IBM Market Insights
Additional Examples: “A Short History of Social Media Screw Ups”
See the presentation slides”
Read the article online at Ad
Age:
Social Media Screw-ups: A
Brief History: A Look at
Some Big Missteps -- and
What We Can Learn From
Them
http://adage.com/article/digita
lnext/social-media-screwups-a-big-missteps/146314/
http://www.slideshare.net/socialmediainfluence/social-media-screw-ups
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© 2011 IBM Corporation
IBM Market Insights
Bibliography
• Live from Social Media Week: The Suxorz picks the worst social media moves of 2010
http://smartblogs.com/socialmedia/2011/02/11/live-from-social-media-week-the-suxorz-picks-the-worstsocial-media-moves-of-2010/
• 6 painful social media screwups
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2011/technology/1104/gallery.social_media_controversies/6.html
• 5 Examples of Social Media Blunders and What to Learn From Them
http://mashable.com/2009/03/08/social-media-blunders/
• How Not To Use Twitter: http://socialmediatoday.com/SMC/103334
• Social Media Screw-ups: A Brief History http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/social-media-screw-upsa-big-missteps/146314/
• In Social Media, Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail http://www.briansolis.com/2011/01/in-social-mediafailing-to-plan-is-planning-to-fail/
• Five Hidden Secrets Of Social Media Failure http://www.business2community.com/social-media/fivehidden-secrets-of-social-media-failure-07854
• Social Media: The best and worst of 2009 http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/4843-social-media-thebest-and-worst-of-2009
• 5 Social Media Lessons: What NOT To Do (note: these are lessons targeted at employees, not
corporations) http://racetalkblog.com/2009/08/12/5-social-media-lessons-what-not-to-do/
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© 2011 IBM Corporation