12 Shocking Social Media Horror Stories

Just in time for Halloween, here are 12 scary, shocking, horrifying and just plain horrible social media misfires from the past year. We’re talking big brands — DiGiorno Pizza, J. P. Morgan, US Airways — making even bigger mistakes or, for one reason or another, catching beatings on social media sites.

To build our house of social media horrors, we asked the digital marketing community for input. We asked about the social media faux pas they remember most vividly, and the lessons we can learn from the blunders. We also found a few examples in blogs and articles.

“When you create a custom hashtag, be prepared for the bad with the good,” says Gayane Margaryan, online communications associate, African Wildlife Foundation. “Social media users are ruthless, and if they have a negative experience, they’ll use your hashtag to talk about it.”

Exhibit A: NYPD’s #myNYPD hashtag, which was designed to let New York City citizens share their experiences with the police department. The hashtag “has really taken off,” Margaryan says, “but not in the way they hoped.” Some people tweeted complaints while others shared photos of NYPD officers “in less-than-desirable circumstances.”

If your company or organization suffers from public criticism, Margaryan says, “why encourage more via a hashtag that aggregates all the replies into one convenient space?”