Skittles Social Networking: Strategy or Stunt?

Skittles -- a brand in the Mars candy conglomerate -- set off a small tornado in social media land yesterday by nearly completely turning over its Web site to Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook (see it here).Judging by early tweets, the Twitterati love it. It validates their "cool" factor. But truly cooler heads are warning about voluminous spam once this gets out beyond social media insiders to people who have axes to grind and links to promote.

Of course, this is not the Mars corporate home page. So my first reaction is, "so what -- it's just Skittles' hyper-caffeinated brand agency buzzing up some thought-leader attention." But my second thought: this is a stunt and not a social media strategy. To be sure, the Skittles Facebook page has potential. If I were Mars, I'd invest any social media resources there.Skittles -- a brand in the Mars candy conglomerate -- set off a small tornado in social media land yesterday by nearly completely turning over its Web site to Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. Judging by early tweets, the Twitterati love it.