We’ve all heard the phrase “loose lips sink ships” before. Now the phrase “loose tweets sink markets” can be coined, as long as you don’t mind if your idioms don’t rhyme.

On Tuesday, Apr. 24, the Syrian Electronic Army hacked the Associated Press’s official Twitter account. The hacker group then tweeted there had been an explosion at the White House and President Barack Obama had been injured in the blast.

Aside from stirring up panic among the AP’s massive online audience (the AP has more than 1 million Twitter followers), it also created hysteria at the New York Stock Exchange. The NYSE streams certain Twitter feeds across electronic banners on the trading floor, and you guessed it, the AP is one of those accounts the exchange broadcasts. After Wall Street traders got a glimpse at the offending tweet, a massive sell-off occurred, creating what is often referred to as a “flash crash.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 130 points, nearly one percent, over the span of two minutes. Six minutes later, the Dow had gained back nearly all that lost value. Another major index, The S&P 500, lost $121 billion dollars in value during this flash crash.

The stock market is known for experiencing wild swings, but these typically occur over the course of days, weeks or months. It is very unusual for such a large drop (or gain for that matter) to happen in the span of just a few minutes.

This incident demonstrates the power of social media. One fake tweet was able to move the entire stock market and cause people to react in such drastic fashion. Nearly 9 million shares of Dow stocks were traded during that dip. Let this incident serve as a demonstration of the power of social media.

At FletcherPR, we are so excited to be working with the Knox County Health Department. One project we are right in the middle of is addressing how leadership, environment and business all impact our overall community health.

Social media has given our voices a 24-hour, multinational broadcasting signal. As a result, those regrettable conversations you used to have in face-to-face settings can now turn into front-page headlines.

Sometimes these gaffes are funny, such as when a staffer for a U.S. Congressman tweeted “Me likey Broke Girls” on the Congressman’s Twitter account. Other times, though, the mishap is much less innocuous. A tragedy or serious news event is not something brands should be using as a selling tool, but we’ve seen them ignore this sage advice time and time again.

We’ve seen it in Kenneth Cole’s infamous Arab Spring tweet, and earlier this year, Australian online retailer, Sellitonline, posted that it would donate to wild fire victims based on how many Facebook likes it received.

Now, Epicurious is in hot water for a couple of tweets it published this week in relation to the recent Boston Marathon bombing tragedy. It received instant backlash and has had to resort to an aggressive apology campaign on Twitter.

It shouldn’t have to be said, but brands need to leave these sort of catastrophic events alone. This is not an appropriate way to promote a brand. Messages of condolences are fine. Charitable donations are acceptable as well, as long as the donation is straightforward and not made into a contest like Sellitonline attempted to do.

At the end of the day, Epicurious did much more harm to its image that greatly outweighs any potential sales those tweets could have generated.

The Huffington Post recently posted a list of the Worst Ads for Women 2012. As an agency that specializes in marketing to women, we love to look at these lists. We usually have a pretty good sense of humor, but sometimes these ads are just offensive. Here is their full list:

No one likes to think they are being sold, and women are hyper sensitive to fast sales talk. A genuine approach is more likely to resonate, but what does that mean? And how do you market to women?

Sometimes science can unveil new worlds we never knew existed before. Other times, it simply provides statistical proof that affirms what we already know.

In a case of the latter, a new study by the Warwick Business School finds that women are “turned off by products placed next to ‘attractive’ images of female models.” The study found that women don’t like to look at other, more-attractive women when making their shopping decisions. Instead it had a negative, sub-conscious effect on the consumers’ perception of the product. According to the researchers, blatant display of sexy models activates a coping mechanism in which the shoppers belittle the display model in their minds.

On the flip side, it turns out that using an attractive model in a more subtle manner produced a much different marketing to women effect. The example given in the article about the study is, given a magazine ad, a beautiful model appearing in the ad with the product produced a negative perception. However, if the model weren’t in the ad, but on the opposite page, then a positive connotation was produced.

So the lesson here might be that it’s okay to use attractive models in advertising, but keep them at bay.

The history of marketing is filled with some bizarre tactics and ploys, from the Oscar Meyer Weiner mobile to websites paying people to get tattoos of their logos.

Well, add another one to the list. Reminiscent of the stories one would hear in the late 90s or early 2000s about internet startups exchanging money for tattoos, there’s a new ad space available in Japan — the thighs of young women.

Unlike the “skinvertising” of the dot-com era, these advertisements aren’t permanent. Instead, girls wear temporary tattoos on their thighs, while presumably wearing shorts or a skirt, in exchange for a little bit of cash. These women earn between $13 and $130 to expose their branded skin for a minimum of eight hours, in addition to posting photos on social media.

It would seem as though this type of ploy would work best for targeting men, as we don’t really see this being too effective as a marketing to women strategy. Just when you thought you’ve heard it all, you come across something like this. It’s hard to imagine what will come next, but while it may be shocking, it shouldn’t be surprising.

FletcherPR is a national communications firm that specializes in reaching women through the power of media. Headquartered in Knoxville, TN with staff in Nashville & Los Angeles, we are a full-service agency providing strategic public relations, social media and marketing communications services to our clients throughout the U.S.

If your company is marketing to women online, you need good content on social media. Sometimes good content is silly. (Think Grumpy Cat or Boo the Dog.)