As I was in the middle of a sentence explaining that it was hard to do something new like social media “wrong”, I had to stop and back-track as I remembered the “Twitter Motrin Scandal of ‘08″. It turns out to be a pretty good example of how NOT to do social media. The story got big enough the New York Times covered it, so you can get all of the Motrin Moms backstory on their Motherlode blog.

Beyond the questionable content of the ad that sparked the controversy in the first place, the faux pas that got Motrin into further deep water was a lack of social media monitoring. They simply had no idea the blogosphere – and in particular, Twitter – was going crazy about their ad. In the end, Motrin had no choice but to pull the ad.

I don’t know that social media monitoring would have created a different end to this story, but it sure would have given some brand managers a heads up when trouble was brewing. In my book, those kinds of early warning systems are priceless to marketing and brand managers.

Beyond the value of an early warning system, there’s value to being part of the conversation. Every day I talk to people afraid to wade in and try – but the risk of not participating will soon outweigh the risk of doing it “wrong.” The most glaring error you can make in social media is not to do it at all. At least start listening – start participating – and you’ll be one step ahead of the game.