Just another social media failure

Just another social media failure

Better have a social media risk management plan

It is time again for an another social media failure – this time from Toyota. What Toyota’s CamryEffect campaign did was pure and total Twitter spam. The Toyota account @CamryEffect was replying to users who used a Super Bowl related hashtag like #Giants or #Patriots with an offer to win a car.

What made this worse is that Toyota set up verified accounts for @CamryEffect alongside @CamryEffect1, @CamryEffect2 and so on – in total 10 accounts. This allowed the company to effectively spam their Twitter campaign to every user who was using Super Bowl related hashtags. Take a look at this “promotion” from one of Toyota’s accounts:

CamryEffect Twitter - Just another social media failure

Users were bombarded with the same tweets over and over again.

Camry Twitter - Just another social media failure

Toyota apologized for the spam campaign via a statement:

We apologize to anyone in the Twitterverse who received an unwanted @reply over the past few days. We were excited to share the message of our Camry Effect campaign in a new way and it was never our intention to displease anyone. We’ve certainly learned from this experience and have suspended the accounts effective immediately to avoid any additional issues. Kimberley Gardiner, National Digital Marketing & Social Media Manager, Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. Inc.

This is just another example of social media failure. What can we learn from social media failures?

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Just another social media failure — http://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/tzn

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About The Author

Torben Rick

Experienced senior executive, both at a strategic and operational level, with strong track record in developing, driving and managing business improvement, development and change management. International experience from management positions in Denmark, Germany, Switzerland and United Kingdom

Blog Comments

The lesson (that should be) learned here is simple;

Marketing professionals who do not use social media, should not be allowed to “use” social media!

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