A To Z of Social Media Fails

A

Think twice before you try to turn a natural disaster into a promotional opportunity. American Apparel offered 20% off for those in states affected by Hurricane Sandy

B

Burger King get hacked.

C

What are you trying to tell us Co-Op?

D

Dell's reputation went up in smoke after tech blog Gizmodo published this photo of an exploding Dell laptop. This single image spread like wildfire across the blogosphere, causing Dell to eventually recall over four million laptop batteries. Dell eventually responded to the blogs, but it was the delayed response that put a cap on the period known as "Dell Hell."

E

When there is a national tragedy, DO NOT USE IT TO PROMOTE YOUR PRODUCTS. EVER.

F

Facebook Admits To Year-Long Data Breach. In June Facebook admitted that they had "inadvertently exposed 6 million users' phone numbers and email addresses to unauthorized viewers over the past year.

G

And then there’s Gap, which, in a grandiose display of #fail, used the situation to remind those in the potentially life-threatening hurricane not to worry because their stores are still open

H

Know who has the keys. If you're going to fire your whole social media team, you might want to remove their access to Twitter first.

I

The Inquisitr got more engagement than they were going for.

J

K

Back in 2011 during the protests in Egypt, Kenneth Cole decided to make light of the situation and post this insensitive tweet.

L

Get back to creative if a photograph of a plane crash which killed a child is in your content calendar.

M

‘nuff said. deaths for like is never going to be well received.

N

In 2010, people took to Nestles Facebook page to rant about their use of palm oil in their products. Nestle, got their banning stick out, trying to remove everyone’s comment and picture that was posted, all hell broke loose. They have since changed their social media policy.

O

99 times out of every 100, the C word will not go down well.

P

Oops.

Q

Quiznos (Colorado based restaurant) ran this ad campaign that spoofed the infamous 2 Girls and 1 Cup viral YouTube video. Poor taste by Quiznos. The social media backlash, from their family orientated customers went almost as viral.

R

It was an innocent mistake. The Red Cross's social media specialist (who was an intern) meant to send this tweet from his personal Twitter profile - not from the @Red Cross account. However, the Red Cross did a great job of owning up to the mistake, and even poked fun out of themselves in a later tweet. It was a big goof, but not a total fail.

S

SUBO gets the #hashtag very wrong

T

This tweet was sent during a PR crisis about horsemeat found in Tesco’s frozen meals

U

There’s a serious storm heading for the East Coast of America, but let’s make light of it and promote free shipping!

V

VW simply don’t engage in tricky questions about their climate policy.

W

Ohhhh, Waitrose.

X

Y

Yahoo! scraped the bottom of the barell with this one. Perhaps a less controversial subject may have been good to test the water?

Z