Your Hashtag Can Get Hijacked: On January 18, McDonald’s created the #McDstories hashtag to inspire customers to share personal stories at the popular restaurant.  However, it led to a flood of negative stories that prompted the chain to yank it two hours later.  It still goes on strong today, though.

Don’t Pay for Celebrity Tweets: Snickers paid a popular model and reality star (Jordon, or Katie Price) to tweet about out-of-character tweets such as China’s gross domestic product.  This “prank” led to followers thinking her account had been hacked, and it ultimately led to the wrong kind of attention for Snickers, Shandrow notes.

Say No to Mass Marketing Tweets: Nine Twitter accounts were created by Toyota to get the word out about the new Camry during the Super Bowl.  The backlash led to the closing of the accounts.  The moral of the story was clear: mass marketing, impersonal tweets can quickly alienate customers.

Remove Insensitivities: KitchenAid, for example, had to fire and clean up the mess of a social media manager after an insensitive tweet pertaining to politics was made. 

Another example is Urban Outfitters, who on October 29 (during Hurricane Sandy), tweeted: “This storm blows (but free shipping doesn’t)! Today only…”  

The backlash still continues to this day.