10 fatal flaws in social media campaigns

Both that article and this one are based on NextStage’s having studied the social media efforts of more than 400 companies in the U.S. and Canada from 2009 to 2012. We monitored companies as diverse as Alberto-Culver, Boston Scientific, Gucci America, Pioneer North America, and Walgreens. That study produced a lot of information on how not to do social media marketing.

An inflexible business plan is social media marketing’s worst enemy.

That’s the big takeaway from this research. Everything in this article comes down to businesses not appreciating the speed and power of consumer voices gone social. Sticking your head in the sand or looking the other way when things go sour is not an option in social media marketing. No brand is big enough to tell consumers that it’s the brand’s way or the highway. Inflexible social media business plans result in negative SROI, period.