We've seen a fantastic improvement in our search engine rankings and a significant increase in enquiries. Many of which have become regular customers. FirstFound have done what they said they would do. Mark Attwater,
Partner, Direct Colour Ltd
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How Not to Succeed Online

Here at FirstFound, we usually show you how to make your website a success. But every now and then it's a bit of a laugh to look at those people who get it very wrong.

Especially when the companies in question are supposed to be some of the world's leading brands. So grab your notebooks, and prepare to learn from other peoples' mistakes.

Learn from Coca-Cola: Don't Upset Mother

Coke's Doctor Pepper brand embraced social media with a funny campaign that's tied in to their famous strap line. What's the worst that could happen?

Well, something like this: The campaign created a media storm after posting a status upgrade referring to pornography on a 14-year-old girl's Facebook account. Which was seen by her mother. And reported back to the Internet forum Mumsnet. Before notifying the press. Who seized the chance to stick the boot in to Coca-Cola, and helped to alienate a huge portion of Coke's target audience.

Yeah, that sounds like the worst thing that could happen.

Learn from The Times: People Don't Pay for What They Can Get for Free

In February 2009, The Times, broadsheet flagship of Rupert Murdoch's news empire, had 1.2 million unique users every day and cornered 15% of the UK online news market. So, rather than relying on advertising, Mr Murdoch decided people should pay to read the news online.

News is still free from every other UK newspaper, plus Google News. Which goes some way to explaining the fact that only 195,700 people per day now visit The Times website.

Looks like people would rather read free news than news that costs them £1.50 per day. Who'd have thought it?

Learn from Google: Peepers Never Prosper

For the world's largest search engine, Google seem to make quite a few foul-ups. Beeping Pac Man games on the front page and Google Buzz sharing personal data are just two in recent months, but there's only one time that Google's come up against a genuine angry mob.

In April 2009, Google's Streetview camera car entered the sleepy village of Broughton in Buckinghamshire. Apparently nothing wakes up a sleepy village like a car-mounted camera, and an angry, shouting mob duly formed – forcing the car to retreat.

Maybe turning up outside someone's house with a camera is one of those times you need to ask for permission?

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