Tin ears, hashtags, trying too hard or whatever else the case may be. Social media mistakes can make a company’s numbers drop like a lead balloon. In this SmartBlog article, the plethora of mistakes was evident as we read through the list at its entirety.

We have highlighted the worst of the worst for you to enjoy. Here are the final chapters of the Suxorz awards.

Politics

1. Former Rep. Anthony Weiner’s social media blunder.                                       Unfortunately for Mr. Weiner, he doesn’t understand social media. Messages that he thought were private were actually public, with pictures. Probably not a good thing during an election year.

2. Pets with Newt was an epic fail.
Newt created a spoof “Is your pet cool enough to be a pet with Newt”. The spoof
not only got no response, but I am still trying to figure out how this had anything to do
with the election.

Even though we have focused on the worst of the worst, here are a few highlights to end with. Not all social media is bad; only badly played on the part of some.

Well Played

1. American Airlines vs. Alec Baldwin.
Kudos to American Airlines for not backing down to a celebrity. Not only was he
thrown off the plane for not following the rules, American Airlines had no problem
talking about it on Facebook and not backing down to him because he
was famous.
2. Heinz rebounded with 35,000 bottles of ketchup.
Heinz released their latest balsamic vinegar ketchup on Facebook exclusively.
Unfortunately they were having trouble with their e-commerce platform and the fans
were not happy about it. Heinz took it upon themselves to fix the problem and shipped
35,000 of the new balsamic vinegar ketchup two days later.

As long as you have some social media savvy, the benefits are amazing. However, if you are like some that we have written about here and don’t know exactly what you are doing, you may find yourself on the 2012 worst of the worst list with the Suxorz awards.