SF Gate did a follow up story about the contest for becoming a wine blogger/CMO for Murphy-Goode. I wrote about it on this blog a couple of months back. In a nutshell, the winery invited the community to chime in and then deftly ignored what they said. It's a good case study for when social media becomes just a marketing gimmick.
The most important lesson is that companies who engage in social media give up control. As figura shows, corporations are still learning to understand what that means by trial and error. You cannot dangle participation in front of a community and not give up at least partial ownership. As important, if you do, be very specific about the rules and regulations and what the effect of social commentary commentary will be (the deciding vote? a guide? nothing but a marketing gimmick?). I don't know anything about the winery, nor do I know their products. I am not going to try them now.
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