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From Wikipedia: "The Scorpion and the Frog is a fable attributed to Aesop. The story is about a scorpion asking a frog to carry him across a river. The frog is afraid to be stung, but the scorpion reassures him that they would both die if that happened. The frog then agrees, but in mid-river the scorpion stings him nevertheless, telling him that it is simply his nature to do so."

Social Media has changed the practice of Marketing faster than the industry's ability to respond intelligently. Many marketers are not yet ready to engage Social Media principles; many barely understand what a blog is, let alone how bloggers might impact their brand. Meanwhile, though, those marketers who presumably "get it" actually seem to "get it wrong" more often than not, and they paid a price in terms of revenue or respectability. Witness:

• The Edelman/Wal-Mart blogger relations flap.
• The Edelman/Wal-Mart flogs.
• LonelyGirl15's flunking the authenticity test.
• Exxon-Mobil's (alleged) fake viral video, attacking Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth."
• The Wikipedia ban.
• The SecondLifers' growing revulsion for marketers.
• Time-Warner's blatant abuse of YouTube for the "Superman Returns" DVD launch.
• UPDATE: the usurpation of Digg and other socially-driven news aggregators.

Paul Holmes wrote about these mishaps and abuses recently (he graciously asked for my input), as did Steven Silvers, Strumpette, Jeff Jarvis and (ironically) Richard Edelman. Many within the industry acknowledge the problem: just as the scorpion in Aesop's fable could not help itself from stinging the helpful frog in mid-stream, it's simply in the marketer's nature to use & abuse new media channels on behalf of their clients. But whereas abuses like these might be glossed over by the mainstream media, in the Social Media era each breach is viewed --- rightly so --- as an egregious affront by the community members affected. And that's the worst, most dangerous part of all.

My guess is that there are plenty of smart PR pros who are willing to wade into Social Media's waters, without any plan to abuse the system --- but, the negative hype about past exploits has swamped the newbies' enthusiasm to take the plunge. I don't blame them. Until we get some better case studies --- examples of great work, in which both the frog and the scorpion made it across the stream unscathed --- I fear that marketers will merely sputter along.

Fear could cause marketers to miss this unique opportunity. The marketer's basic nature could cause them to foul it up.