A big apology to the 12,000 socially engaged moms subjected to an April fool’s joke in poor taste

My name is John Cataldi, I am considered by many to me an authority on social media targeting, engagement, privacy, and on occasion social media edicate. I could blame my lapse of good judgment on a 16 hour work day, my belief that everyone shared my “office space” like humor, or a suggestion by a coworker on themes for a quick and funny April fool’s joke, fueled by social media. Though in hindsight, I can give no excuse for my lack of common sense for socially sending, by my estimate, 12,000 moms into a potential panic that nose picking or ingesting mucus could be linked to brain damage.

At approximately 3am EST, on April 1st, I had the epiphany to create a social media joke in about an hour. My caffeinated brain researched the subject of top April fools jokes, and I discovered that women were more susceptible to than their male counterparts. Looking at social trends and influencers within the female gender in association with lifestyle, first time to 30 something moms seemed to be the best grouping with viral potential. So I entitled a press release, completely as a farce, with no malice or intent whatsoever to do harm to anyone, “Child Nose Picking Linked to Brain Damage”, supported by such medical authorities as:

1.      Dr. Derek Zoolander,  Author of Bad Habits Make Bad Children and founder of the Center of Kids Who Can't Read Good

2.      Dr. Carnero Attero – Latin for Cow Poop

3.      The National Center of Scientific Data, Surveillance, Health Statistics (NCSDSHS) – Completely made that agency up

4.      And a scary disease name, Early Onset Pediatric Rhinotillexomania Psychosis (EOPRP)

Using a home grown social media targeting engine and a semi-automated social engagement process, I targeted over 12,000 moms on 12 mommy based blogs, 210 mommy influencers, across 5 social networks. A random message generator engaged the moms as individuals and gave the appearance, and re-syndicated content from mom influencers increased target moms into engaged followers.

Regardless of the gaping holes within the content at face value, I mixed a lot of medical fact with fiction. So, the concept, unless you tried the validate any of the subject matter, was real enough to many to cause a mommy panic, and call the toll free 800 Nose Picking Hotline. Now moms, that were once panicked have, now become perturbed after hearing a prerecorded message the this is a April Fool’s joke, followed by the history of nose picking.

The net result, I have over 11,984 visited the article content, 45 moms called our pre-recorded hotline, and 12 moms referencing that I was a very bad man, though I am paraphrasing, 2 moms going into more detail while crying, all between the hours of 4-7am EST when the campaign began to pick up followers. I spent the better part of April fools morning, deleting the pranks social efectiness, recalling press releases, re-search engine optimizing bad content links, so that there is very little if any trace of this very bad prank left on the internet other than my own admittance that it occurred, with the exception of those that it may have affected.

For all moms affected by my stupidity:

1)      I am truly sorry, I am a donkey ass.

2)      As a father of two, I should have known better, if my wife had read the article, I am almost certain she would have called in, discovered it was a prank, and then hunted me down.

3)      Please refer to point 1 again.

For social media marketers:

1)      Don’t be a donkey ass

2)      Think before you push a joke, taunt, or statement into the social space, because it could come back and haunt you.

3)      Think, plan, bounce off social campaigns off of your target audience to see if your messaging has the desired effect.

I learned a valuable lesson from this experience and hopefully providing a good example to others of what not to do in social media. Take heed, not even witness protection could help you if you socially insult an army of moms.