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!

• 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:


• 7 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.
  

• (Bad and) Tasteful Ad Tactics for Social Media
  From the 10e20 Blog: First half of this excellent post reviews what NOT to do if you’re integrating advertising into your social media.  Bonus- the second half reviews as the title suggests tasteful tactics for social media advertising.

• How Not to be a Key Online Influencer
  From David Henderson: Story about a PR account executive/vice president from Ketchum who flew to Memphis to visit FedEx, one of their biggest clients. Upon arriving, he posted a derogatory message about Memphis on Twitter. The folks inside FedEx saw the Twitter message and didn’t like it much. Ironically the executive was visiting FedEx to talk with them about social media.

• Why I Suck At Twitter: Confession Of A Failure
  From Twitip: Sunil Pathak of Blogger’s Lab talks about his own failure and mistakes on Twitter so you can learn what not to do from his experience.

• 7 Marketing Mistakes to Avoid on Twitter
  From iMediaConnection.com: Discussion of the most common mistakes and pitfalls on Twitter that could have a negative impact on your business or brand – from “inconsistent or lack of visual branding” to “not listening for brand mentions and relevant conversations” to “using Twitter as a push marketing tool.”
• 4 Signs You’re a Social Media Failure
  From iMediaConnection: Denise Zimmerman outlines four common failure scenarios to help you prepare to respond effectively and turn social media mistakes into successes. Includes situations such as “nothing happening”, “backlash”, “public outings” and “negative post, tweets, & comments”.
• Twitter FAIL! The 8 Worst Brands on the World’s Hottest Microblog
  From Revolution Magazine: Here are eight big-name brands with microblogging strategies you’ll want to avoid – includes McDonalds, HP, Amazon, E-Bay and more.