Brands that have Fallen Foul of Social Media

Maybe it's schadenfreude, but I'm still chuckling after a colleague led me to Jeremiah Owyang's splendid list of foul-ups in social media A Chronology of Brands that Got Punk’d by Social Media

A list of companies that were blind-sided by the internet, they didn’t understand the impacts of the power shift to the participants, or how fast information would spread, or were just plain ignorant.
Criteria of “Punk’d” includes a situation where the story would have not been told if social media was not available, or if social media enhanced the situation

It's not an exhaustive list, but provides a good slice of the dangers inherent in social media. In most of these cases, it really wasn't the brands' fault, but if there are any lessons to be learnt, perhaps these:

1. Don't offer to pay people to write good consumer reviews for you.
2. Don't believe everyone on Twitter is who they say they are.
3. If you're a top executive involved in controversy, don't use your daughter's online ID as a human shield.
4. Be very careful who you employ. In addition, ensure that ingredients in your food products cannot easily be substituted by human mucous.

Thanks Jeremiah!