Social media is a sensitive little beast, and campaigns are even more sensitive. Once you announce a series of social events and content, you're subject to scrutiny both internal and external. Once any part of the campaign is tied directly to money the campaign becomes even more vulnerable.
Use the following warnings as guidelines for social campaign procedure. One mistake could sink the whole ship,
Newsjacking gone wrong
Brands often think that jumping on new trends or news events is the fastest way to relevance, and, when done right, it can be. But when it's done wrong, clumsily or clunkily, it can make your brand look amateur and desperate, which doesn't engender trust or loyalty. No one wants to be associated with a brand that doesn't provide value but is publicly trying and failing. Think the #WhyIStayed hashtag that DiGiorno jumped on and was quickly eviscerated for.
Purchased followers
This is controversial to say the least, but purchased followers can seem like an easy get for a smaller brand or a campaign that needs to get moving fast, but it will likely not play out the way you want. Black hat SEO and spam-centric approaches are pretty see-through and often don't survive the long-term. Why? Because they rarely result in any kind of real engagement. Organic growth is the best growth, and paid media growth can provide a nice cushion. Anything else is time- and money-wasting.
Too many tweets
Don't tweet like you're falling in love. i.e, don't tweet all the time every time. It's easy to get super-excited about a campaign and front-load the schedule with a bunch of tweets, but don't forget that steady wins the race. Followers don't like to overloaded with information, as that doesn't make it easy to consume any value you might be offering. Make a schedule and stick to it.
Not enough tweets
Speaking of making a schedule, don't be erratic and fall silent. Have a dedicated team for the social aspect of the campaign, and, once again, refer to that schedule. Don't let getting busy or distracted with other marketing needs take you from the campaign schedule. As always, steady wins the race, and if you drop off, followers are likely to drop you. Remember, even after a campaign is over, those followers can be valuable, especially if you can point them to other campaigns or survey them for data.
Drunk posting
Of course, don't tweet while tipsy (looking at you, Super Bowl fans) but also, in general, check your content for potential offensiveness. No one wants to go the way of US Airways, which was a major mistake made hugely public, but also no one wants to go the way of Justine Sacco, whose purposeful tweet she thought was inoffensive. If there's ever a question and you have a large audience, make sure to have at least one more filter to check the content before shouting it from the rooftops. Even with a delete button, what goes on the Internet stays on the Internet. Don't risk sinking your campaign with one dumb mistake.
Inconsistent voice
Previously in this article I mentioned having a dedicated team, but having a social team can sometimes make it difficult for your campaign to harness that unified voice the most popular brand accounts are famous for. When you have different employees on different shifts, you're going to want a system in place to make sure the messages being set out are consistent with your established voice. You could have a checks and balances system in place for this and/or you can have a sheet of guidelines for composing each tweet, i.e, questions to ask yourself before the tweet is finished. Also, you can plan as much ahead as possible: think posts centered around holidays, sales, and current events.
This and this are great further references for social media campaign mistakes to avoid.