Social media marketing is a tricky balance. If you can come up with a viral smash hit, there’s nothing better. But if you grossly underestimate the intelligence of the community you’re targeting- it can create devastating backlash. It can also be unintentionally hilarious…

image: Tinou

1st Place: SEO Spam Extravaganza on Digg

This week an internet marketing consultant tried to game Digg with a gaudy salesletter post — pumped up by bought votes and fake comments.

Several dozen sock puppet accounts dived in, leaving comments faker than a $5 Rolex at the Bangkok Flea Market:

The pièce de résistance was the blatant instructions on how to Digg the post — in case the hired $0.50-per-Digg shills weren’t sure on how to press the button — with a promise of a ‘very special prize’:

Actually, we “dugg” everything about this whole attempt so much… that we decided to award this whole fiasco with a very special prize of its own… the 1st gold place cup in the Social Marketing Hall of Shame!

2nd Place: Chain E-mail Forwarding FAIL

This tweet by had me swiveling out of my chair with laughter:

Todd is a witty search marketing pro, who moonlights as an HR guy. He frequently leaves scorching-but-funny commentary about incompetent job applications on his Twitter stream.

Chain e-mail forwarding is technically “social media”…. a way of sharing viral content with your friends… albeit, a very old-fashioned one. We generally recommend more sophisticated, “Web 2.0″ channels for sharing links your links, like Twitter or Digg.

But if you absolutely must forward that lurid urban legend Aunt Carolyn sent ya, don’t hit “CC: Entire Address Book” while you’re applying for a job. In this case, it cost someone a job interview, but it did earn a 2nd place silver cup in the Social Marketing Hall of Shame:

3rd Place: Reddit Ringtone Sham

An enterprising spammer created a “official sounding” Reddit account (called “AdminBot”) and used it send private messages pimping a spammy ringtone subscription site:

While the spam effort itself is ho-hum, the sheer awfulness of the copywriting was epic. We “appreciate” your copywriting so much, please accept this bronze award and permanent place in the Social Marketing Hall of Shame as “proof” of “the fact” that we got a major kick out of this!

Runner Up: DUI Attorney Twitter Spam

You should never Tweet while drunk. You’re liable to attract the attention of ambulance-chasing Twitter spammers like this one:

If you come across more examples of gut wrenching social media “marketing” that you’d like to see featured in future installments of the Hall of Shame, please contact me for immediate consideration.

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