In honor of Halloween, we thought it would be fun to share thirteen of the scariest social media faux pas with our readers. So, go ahead and pick your poison: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube, Tumblr. In today’s totally wired digital world, the list of social media channels available seems to be constantly growing. Nevertheless, no matter which channel you choose, excessive and reckless online sharing can have real world consequences. Consider these frightening social media mistakes as a lesson about “What Not to Do”:
(1) A would-have-been Cisco employee, Connor Riley, tweeted the following message: “Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.” Cisco saved her the angst of having to decide by rescinding the offer.
(2) Marc Jacobs Intern branded company CEO a ‘tyrant’ via company’s Twitter account.
(3) Former Aflac Spokesman and comedian Gilbert Gottfried tweeted, following the devastating Japanese tsunami of spring 2011, “I just split up with my girlfriend, but like the Japanese say, “They’ll be another one floating by any minute now.”
(4) A “Google Engineer Accidentally Makes His ‘Plus Sucks’ Rant Public” via a Google+ post.
(5) Someone with access to the Red Cross twitter account posted, “Ryan found two more 4 bottle packs of Dogfish Head’s Midas Touch beer…when we drink we do it right #gettngslizzerd.”
(6) Kenneth Cole tweeted, “Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online at http://bit.ly/KCairo” in order to promote his collection and shortly thereafter, apologized for the insensitive tweet.
(7) Chrysler was not pleased when someone with access to the @ChryslerAutos account tweeted: “I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to fucking drive”.
(8) Domino’s employees did unsanitary things to customers’ food orders and then proceeded to post the videos on You-Tube.
(9) Vodafone suspended an employee after an obscene tweet, which read: “VodafoneUK is fed up of dirty homo’s and is going after beaver.”
(10) Larry Johnson’s twitter slur targets coach and heckling fan.
(11) NYU Fellow, Nir Rosen, resigned over offensive tweets about Lara Logan’s assault, posting comments like, “It’s always wrong, obviously, but I’m rolling my eyes at all the attention she’ll get.”
(12) CNN fired Middle Eastern editor, Octavia Nasr, after posting a tweet saying she was sad to hear of Fadlallah’s death and referring to him as “one of Hezbollah’s giants I respect a lot.”
(13) #weinergate
Happy Halloween and be sure to think before you tweet!
