Facebook Fails – Social media mistakes and how to avoid them

When Facebook marketing succeeds, it provides a huge boost to brands. But when it doesn’t, the end-result is simply disastrous. While they say mistakes are nothing but experiences, we suggest that you avoid such instances and learn from others' “experiences.”

Kia - Season’s Memeing Contest

At the end of 2012, Kia Motors collaborated with Cheezburger, inc. for a contest that wanted users to create a mash-up of popular memes with Kia vehicles. The campaign failed to gain traction with its intended audience, going to show that you can’t try too hard to force an association between your brand and something popular.

Malaysia Airlines – My Ultimate Bucket List

Malaysia Airlines launched a contest offering free flight tickets and iPads to consumers in the wake of the MH370 and MH17 tragedies. Where they went wrong is in the naming of the campaign - My Ultimate Bucket List. A bucket list is defined as a list of things that a person wants to do before they die. Needless to say, the campaign caused further grief to people who had lost loved ones in the airline disasters and sparked social media outrage.

Zomato –  Tech Capital

About a year ago, Zomato was looking to hire new tech specialists to work in their head office in Delhi. Instead of using LinkedIn or any of the dozens of other hiring and networking services out there, they posted an infographic on their website titled “Why Delhi is better than Bangalore”. The post was offensive to people from Delhi and Bangalore and just everyone in general – a classic example of when edginess is taken too far. There’s a line between funny and insulting and people let Zomato know they crossed that on social media.

Flipkart - Big Billion Day Sale

Last year, Flipkart organized its Big Billion Day sale with promises of huge savings to customers. Unfortunately, the event was plagued with reports of false pricing and several technical glitches. Users flocked to social media to voice their frustration and Flipkart was left with a PR nightmare on its hands.

Nestle - Greenpeace Censorship

In 2010, food giant Nestle was targeted by environmental organization Greenpeace for using palm oil in its products. Nestle removed a Greenpeace video from YouTube linking them to palm oil production and Greenpeace responded by encouraging activists to go to change their Facebook display pictures to modified versions of Nestle’s logo and then go to Nestle’s Facebook page and voice their protest. Nestle deleted some Facebook posts and rudely responded to others. This knee-jerk reaction ended up giving further credence to Nestle’s detractors and caused even more damage to their brand.

Tata Nano – What Makes the Tata Nano so Cheap?

Billed as the cheapest production car in the world, with an incredibly low price and amazing mileage, the Tata Nano should have been a success in India. However, marketing materials all referred to the car as the world’s “cheapest” car. The word “cheap” has a very negative connotation in India and the car was not a success, showing that sometimes you need to look past your own opinions and look at how the general public will view your campaign.

Want to learn how to avoid these mistakes and a host of others? Want to learn how to make Facebook marketing work for you? Attend Social Samosa’s Facebook Marketing Workshop.

Avoid Facebook facepalms by registering for our Facebook marketing workshop this Saturday, April 30, 2015.