The Marketing Society Forum: Can social-media slip-ups have a lasting effect on a brand?(Discussion)

Paddy Power has been criticised for retweeting a bet query about a footballer having a heart attack.

MAYBE - Jan Gooding, Global marketing director, Aviva

The one thing we know about social media is that news travels incredibly fast to huge numbers of people and inspires action.

Any brand owner's worst nightmare would be a slip-up being magnified to such an extent it causes the loss of customers and long-term damage to reputation. Whether that terror materialises depends on the brand's response.

One thing we know about brands is that they are resilient and can be forgiven the occasional slipup. That is if they are prepared to admit they got it …