What does the f-bomb do to a brand?

By: Cynti Oshin
Director of Client Services & New Business Development

Ask Chrysler. The f-bomb got tweeted on their twitter timeline yesterday. Oops.

And on the same day, I attended the Seattle MarketMix 2011 event held by the Puget Sound chapter of the American Marketing Association. If I had a nickel for every time a speaker spoke of the value of social media and leveraging the multiple tools like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and more - I'd be rich. Further, many mentioned that doing so does not come without risks. Those mentioned were issues like fielding negative comments from your consumer, a delayed response to an issue that can turn into a wild fire, an inability to devote the time and manpower to best exploit the opportunities and more.

It appears that Chrysler's mishap was the result of their social media agency's employee who thought he/she was tweeting on a personal account. Instead, gulp, the tweet was going out on their client's account. Oh man, I get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach just thinking about it.

And so what do we learn from this most unfortunate social media mishap? Apparently, all sorts of people have access to speak on Chrysler's behalf, including Chrysler employees and individuals at their various support agencies. That's a pretty big puddle to try to get your arms around. You really have very little control as to exactly who is going to say what at any given time. You have to trust that your advocates are acting as advocates. And you need to be prepared to deal with that big 600 pound gorilla in the middle of the room, the potential for someone to do something really, really sophomoric. Say, like insult Chrysler's hometown and all the drivers in it. Ouch.