4 examples of social media marketing gone wrong in 2018

Author: Gautam Mane

Take a look at the 4 takeaways from these hilarious social media marketing fails of the year 2018.

Yet another year comes to an end. Everyone you know is looking back and trying to understand how the year went. In the world of social media marketing, things change so rapidly that a year seems like a really long time. So many things have changed in the last one year.

There have been several hits, but many misses as well. While it is always good to look at success stories, sometimes greater learning can be had from failures. Let us look at some of the major social media marketing fails of the year. They just go to show that even the biggest names can get it wrong.

General knowledge and fact-checking

So much of research is being done regarding digital marketing. We are even using artificial intelligence to make the campaigns more effective. But we often miss out the simple things. Chick-Fil-A, the popular food chain, showed an appalling lack of basic general knowledge about their own country. A Twitter user requested them to open an outlet in Alaska, one of the US states. The reply mentioned that they were not looking to expand out of North America at this point! The tweet had to be taken down, but by then the damage had already been done.

Accuracy, fact-checking

We usually know where the Summer Olympics are held once every 4 years. But the venues of the Winter Olympics are usually not that well publicized. But that is for the general public. One would expect news stations on TV to be slightly better informed. The venue for the 2018 Winter Olympics was a South Korean city called PyeongChang. A news station in Chicago mistakenly mentioned the city as P.F.Chang, which is the name of a popular Asian restaurant chain. This got a lot of flak on social media, and really cast doubts on the news station’s ability to provide accurate news.

Error of perception

For some corporates, working on their public perception is more important that designing a good digital marketing strategy. Lockheed Martin is one of the world’s largest arms manufacturer and a defense contractor. When they put up a Twitter competition for posting any photo of their products on the occasion of World Photography Day, they might have thought they were inviting engagement. But they attracted the wrong kind of engagement. People posted gory images of deaths caused by them, spewing anger and abhorrence. The campaign backfired, building up an even worse public perception.

Due diligence and double checking

A similar social media marketing fail confronted the snack company Walkers. This time it was not because of their poor perception; but because of their lack of due diligence. People were asked to submit selfies. Some people submitted inappropriate pictures as well. It seems there was no one doing a basic check at Walkers. All such inappropriate pictures were also posted by Walkers on their social media profile.