Rule 101 Social Media: Don’t be stupid

I was listening to Massimo Burgio at SES London on Thursday talk about how to get yourself banned on Facebook.  A good presentation on dos and don’ts.  The fall out with anything on the web is of course be nice, be honest and don’t be stupid.  Which led me to think two things.  1. just how many pretty stupid things are we capable of when using social tools, and 2. what howlers have we seen recently by bigger brands that we can learn from….

So, coming in at a fairly strong 1st place it’s ‘be wary about telling people you are going away’.  Various accounts online of people being burgled as a result of tweeting they are leaving the house for weeks.  However you have to think that either they have stupidly posted where they live, or have some fairly unsavoury acquaintances!

Number 2.  It’s all about me.  No. No it’s really not.  I don’t care that you have run out of tea bags on a Saturday morning or that you are settling down to back to back Inbetweeners and it’s the FUNNIEST THING EVER!!.  You know who you are.

Number 3 (and the slightly more serious Brand error).  Bad humour or just plain offensive….not your best tweet by retailer Kenneth Cole!

Number 4.  Don’t be offensive to your customers!  Nestle making a mistake here with its not so great use of Facebook to manage complaints back in March last year, should probably have remembered to mind manners in public forums too ( this came from a request from Nestle not to use altered version of the company’s logo as  profile pic, or your comments will be deleted)

Number 5?  I leave the floor open!!