Poor old @VodafoneUK have fallen victim to the dangers of social media - and boy have they done it in style(!!)  On Friday afternoon, someone posted this homophobic remark on their @VodafoneUK twitter feed to their 8500+ followers.

Ouch.

Disgruntled employee perhaps? Or ‘innocent’ mistake posting to the wrong account? After all the apologising that they did, it seems it was a “A severe breach of rules by staff in our building“. Either way, despite their swift attempts to delete the tweet, it had been re-tweeted and captured for posterity for all to see. A quick Google now shows over 1,200 results for the exact offending phrase.

Interestingly, the blunder gave them a bit of a boost in followers. People wanting to witness in person their next public fail? Hmmm…

Just goes to show that measuring social media success by number of followers alone isn’t appropriate! I guess Friday’s incident just highlights the power and speed of social media. And the inability to retract our digital utterances, thanks to it’s real-time and re-publishable nature. Social media can be quickly damaging to a brand if care isn’t taken.

In this increasingly socially digital world of ours, brands are being forced to be more open, more honest and more able to engage in real-time conversations. All power to the consumer! Not since the birth of the internet itself has something had such a levelling effect on the way we all communicate.

Of course, social media is here to stay and it will reap significant benefits to those who use it well. And for those who don’t?  Well, they’ll probably be left out on the street - presumably like that Vodafone employee.