Went to the Online Marketing & Media08 Show is Islington a few weeks back and attended a panel discussion; Adriana Lukas, Al Tepper, and James Cherkoff were presenting biggest blunders in social media over the past few years and key lessons learned from them.

You could tell that it was the end of the day. The presenters seemed exhausted not to mention the audience. Hardly any interaction between the audience and the panel occurred, except from an individual at the back.

They discussed these big gaffes;
Sony’s All I want for xmas is a PSP
Nike’s Yoga SN site
GM Chevy Tahoe adverts
Coke’s Zero movement
Juicy Fruit’s blog
Bud.tv
Virizon and Walmart’s SN sites
Cilit Bang
Heinz’s create an advert competition
Moben’s kitchen hell

A few successes were mentioned too, highlighting how niche social networking is the way forward; e.g. Nike plus’s which has 14 million miles of running already logged on the site.

Had I read the description of the talk perhaps I wouldn’t have been so disappointed by the rehash of mostly old and well discussed material.

Most of the key lessons were identical, and I thought perhaps the range of gaffes could have presented a range of lessons…

The lessons for us all are:
Don’t underestimate the audience. Don’t assume you know them and patronise them. Bloggers are astute at detecting BS.
You can’t control social media’s user generated content. If you ask them to make ads and submit them, don’t turn round and say they are amateur.
Monitor your brand on line. You don’t have to have a blog to do this, but you should be listening/reading/commenting where appropriate on what others are saying about you.
The internet is one huge big focus group. Use it well.
Don’t use intermediaries to communicate. Those closest to the audience should be enabled. This means agencies stop writing your clients posts.
Viral marketing can blow issues out of proportion.
Marketing gives social context, just like dressing, but best blogs are simple and clear – so even if your client is a global FMCG brand, avoid forcing creative to over design to increase spend. ‘Lowfi’ it! (low finance). Look at Google’s success re design; very clear and very simple.

It is interesting to note Primark’s recent preferred method of communication in it’s recent ‘crisis communication’ response to use of child labour in supply production. Primark chose to respond to the criticism from the recent Panorama program via it’s website. Some say this is great to deal directly with concerned clients and engage them in conversation, others said they avoided their accusers by not participating in the program when invited.