Last week I was attending the Blog World Expo where Rob Key, CEO of Converseon, shared an example of how General Motors launched a contest for audience-created videos of their Chevy Tahoe. Then I read the same example in "Content Nation" by John Blossom. It's an older (2006), but good example of what organizations need to be prepared for when content is user-generated. According to cnet,


"As part of a partnership with the TV show "The Apprentice," GM launched a contest last month to promote the Chevy Tahoe SUV. The contest challenges viewers to create their own digital commercial about the SUV at Chevyapprentice.com. Entrants must choose from a range of video clips and sound tracks and write their own text to create their ad."
In this case, along with videos that were submitted for the contest, there were also plenty of videos made on everything that was wrong with the Tahoe. And it wasn't just video, it was commentary that went viral as well. On top of that GM was then chastised for not responding quickly enough (details can be found in the cnet article).
Here's one example that I found all these years later:

The site is gone (chevyapprentice.com), but the videos and articles still live on...
"Content Nation Marketing Rule #10: If you want to ask for a conversation about your brand in social media, you have to be ready to hear what you may not want to hear."
Personally, I think GM was ahead of it's time with this contest and it was probably a good risk that they took because only a fraction of the ads ended up being negative. As a marketer, are you prepared for engaging in social media and perhaps finding out what your customers (or other parties) may truly think of your company or brands?