twopointouch

So, I’m on a panel about how brands can benefit or suffer from involvement with social media at the forthcoming Blogging4Business event.

Good examples we all know about: Dell (addresses Dell Hell service complaints with its own blog; learns from early mistakes on said blog), Microsoft (developer social network; but also taking stick over its blogger laptop giveaway), Nokia (blogger relations campaign)

Bad examples we all know about: Walmart (pretty much everything they do), Sony (fake blog), Ask (fake ‘underground’ campaign).

I’m on a panel with Antony ‘wrote the book about social media’ Mayfield, though, so I don’t want the examples that he’ll bring up - five seconds before I’m due to speak - leaving me with a contribution that goes something like ‘Yeah… err… Antony’s right. You do have to be careful and transparent and that….’

I’ve already found an excellent positive example. Doggysnaps (beta) is a social network developed by the Dogs Trust. The gist of it is that you - a dog lover - upload pictures of your dog and look at the pictures uploaded by other members. It’s flickr for dogs, basically, you can tag and comment on others’ snaps. There’s a dog of the week and a ton of forums giving dog care advice. What’s this got to do with neglected dogs, then? Well, the community can also buy merchandise, donate directly, and I understand that there are plans to introduce a means to adopt dogs in care.

The bad example? That’s where you come in. Companies, please, that have gone about approaching social media in a totally cack-handed way, earning them torrents of abuse. Not-so-well-known cases especially welcome. Via the comments or email, please.