There are ways of marketing yourself using social media and there are ways of not doing so. One of the ways of not doing so is by making a complete fool of yourself and then allowing the fact to get out.
Take the marketing company in this story. That's Ivell Marketing and Logistics in Clacton, UK. We'll leave to one side that I just did a Google search and they come up second when you search for their company name, second to the story I've just quoted - we'll even leave out the fact that their contacts page was broken when I uploaded this entry.
No, their biggest marketing clanger is to sack a 16-year-old for daring to say on Facebook, in her own time, that working for the company was boring. This, my friends, is where you can use social media to your advantage. Your employee finds your company boring? Technology means you find this out and also realise she felt unable to talk to you about her concerns? This is what we call a call to action, an opportunity. If you talk to her and find a way of making the job more interesting there's no doubt she'll Facebook that as well.
Instead, the story is out and you're seen as an intolerant, humourless sourpuss. And thanks to the BBC's SEO skills, people looking for your company - a marketing company, mind you - will find that out first. Nice one.
