Skittles Tweets the Rainbow

WOW... Skittles has taken a big and bold step into the social media space. Realizing that they can no longer ignore the power of Social Media, Skittles has replaced its homepage with a Twitter stream. More than that, they easily linked users to their Facebook page to view Friends, Flickr to view pics, MySpace for videos and Wikipedia for product information; content that is primarily user generated.

While I feel the module they created for the navigation is far too big and may be confusing for some users, I love what Skittles is doing. Yes, they are already experiencing users tweeting negative comments about the brand, but I feel the upside is far greater than the downside.

First, Why It's a FAIL:
1. Skittles really should have thought about using a filter called JustSignal. By using JustSignal, they could have easily reviewed the Twitter stream before pushing the tweets to the public. I am very curious why Agency.com decided not to use this, or another service. I have my suspicions (i.e., cost associated with 24/7 review), but would love to know the true rationale.

2. I can't imagine the conversations that are going on between the agency and the CMO. The sheer number of negative and derogatory comments is overwhelming. This could have been easily avoided.

Now, Why I Love It:
1. Yeah, yeah, yeah.... it's been done before, but as an early adopter in the social media space, Skittles will garner more media coverage, press, PR and buzz than they ever could have with a traditional media push. And, probably did it at a fraction of the cost. I wonder how many people went to Skittles.com today for the first time because of this effort. I know I did.

2. Once all this attention dies down, the conversation will turn back towards Skittles; versus the off-topic conversation that is being tweeted about now.

3. Finally, a reason for consumers to go back to their website.

What does everyone else think?

- Chris