A lot of people wonder about the importance of social media and what it can do for their brand. It can do a ton of good and it can also be a PR disaster too. Check out my Tweets from yesterday… a perfect example of when the left hand doesn’t communicate with the right one.

The social media person of Cover Girl totally misled me.  I went to the website and the store to see that the Flipsticks is totally not the collection by British Celebrity make up artist Pat McGrath. Uh… so much for being on top of things.  Here are the shades from the Pat McGrath Runway collection from CoverGirl.

So the beauty of the internet is that I can always find the answer I am looking for.  This was no easy task. First of all, the lipstick component looks just like the QUEEN collection. But it is not a part of it. From what I understand – it is 16 of the 44 shades from Covergirl LipPerfection Collection…. ummmm okay. How confusing.  When you go to the CG site and type in Pat McGrath on the search bar, it says NO RESULTS MATCH YOUR REQUEST.

That is so not cool – And the Social Media person told me that it is the Blast Flipstick Collection. (Which is not on their website btw). I found out what THAT was on another blog…which is new for Spring 2012. Is Pat McGrath involved with this collection too?

Like many of you know, when I moved to New York last fall I was recruited by Estee Lauder relentlessly via Linkedin and spent over 4 months interviewing with 2 of their departments and 6 senior VP’s for a much coveted ‘beauty social media’ position.  All in all, I am saying this because throughout the last 2 years, I have moved countries, cities, spent a fortune at FIDM, went to countless interviews for “social media” positions in the beauty industry and this is what the person who is ‘more qualified than me for the job’ does. Corporate companies hire Ivy League grads, friend of friends, MBA graduates, daughter of family friends and nepotism is rampant – but truly it is the brand that suffers when mistakes like this are made. You can have all the connections and degrees but really how you win is by having COMMON SENSE. I would be so frustrated working with alongside with people who have no clue what they are talking about.

I truly am passionate AND knowledgeable about beauty and a social media marketing so a mistake like this one shocks me. The most surprising thing is, it will most likely be overlooked, swept under the rug and as important as the Tweet that faded from my timeline 2 minutes ago.

Makes you wonder doesn’t it?