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Social media marketing opportunism during tragedy = fail

If your company is considering trying to take advantage of the brewing conversations about Mumbai on social networks to squeeze in news about your company -- don't.
Written by Jennifer Leggio, Contributor

I wrote just a few minutes ago about the communication issues that stem from social media in the time of crisis, i.e. the Mumbai attacks. In doing some additional reading after posting my article, I ran across something that I find not shocking, yet abhorrent -- people spamming using the #mumbai hashtag to market their products or services. Here is the most prominent example:

Social media marketing opportunism during tragedy = fail

Twitter user @seanzyville (who I hope is deleted soon) apparently created this profile only to promote a CRM demo from Web Solutions. The links he has posted as shown in the screenshot above go to:

Social media marketing opportunism during tragedy = fail

I wasn't the only one to find this behavior disgusting. I found the following tweet from Roberto Rocha, journalist for the Montreal Gazette:

Social media marketing opportunism during tragedy = fail

I don't think I need to say much more. If your company is considering trying to take advantage of the brewing conversations about Mumbai on social networks to squeeze in news about your company -- don't.

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