Toyota should know better than anyone how to disseminate bad news to affected customers. Again this week it announced the recall of 2.7 million Prius, Corolla and Avensis models, bringing the total number of Toyota branded cars off the road to more than 10 million this year. That’s more or less in line with the recall numbers each of the past two years, 2010 and 2011. The world’s biggest carmaker (as of 1H, 2012, anyhow) should be an old pro then at utilizing its social channels to keep people informed and up-to-date. Right? Think again.

The very same social channels that will deliver the most visibility for your products, campaigns and overall brand awareness hold the greatest reputational risk, a recent survey of social media executives reveals, underscoring the need to develop a robust social media risk management plan.

For a long, agonizing week, the Barclays UK Facebook page was overrun by haters incensed that the bank was complicit in rigging Libor interest rates unchecked for four long years. The bank broke its silence on Facebook on Friday with a big apology that was both brave and tardy. It won back a few fans, it appears, but was it enough to silence the critics?

You know all about Bob and Marcus, the disgraced former Barclays Bank CEO and chairman who were forced to step down in recent days amid accusations of Libor-rigging. But do you know who Dan is? He’s a character whom the bank introduced last week to its Facebook fan base in the UK just before the all-consuming scandal went public. Dan was supposed to convey some personal finance tips in these trying times. You can guess what happened next. Cue the Bollinger barbs.

A jerky video ostensibly filmed inside a swanky, closed-door event hosted by oil giant Shell goes viral this week, racking up more than 400,000 views in less than 48 hours, scores plenty of dishy headlines and gives birth to the hashtag #ShellFAIL. Another case of Big Oil being foiled by social-savvy activists? Yes and No. “No,” as in the Yes Men – that famous band of hoaxters were at it again and they somehow allow the oil giant to come away from this one squeaky clean.

There was a big fuss made over research last year that found social media-fueled corporate crises are on the rise and that companies are increasingly unprepared to defuse them. A year on, and how is the corporate world faring in shoring up its defenses against the Twitter tempest, blog storm and Facebook furor? The results will again disappoint the crisis communications pros who read this blog.

This could be the toughest job yet in social media: running Goldman Sachs’ largely neglected social media communities. That’s right, the world’s most reviled investment bank – a.k.a. “the great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity” – is looking to hire a social media community manager. Interested?

I’ve been speaking to a lot to communications professionals lately about how to update their crisis communications strategy for the Twitter age. It’s true that social media has completely changed the game for crisis comms pros as now the crowd informs the crowd about how a disaster, natural or corporate-made, is likely to impact their community. But smart companies can use this technology as well to improve their communications strategy with the public. Here’s another reason why.

If you were to sum up the philosophy of spirits marketers in two words, surely, it would be: sex sells. Could social media change all that? If the Belvedere Vodka PR mess that erupted on Twitter and Facebook over the weekend is any indication, then the creative guys better figure out some new bright ideas to sell booze and spirits.

This week I was invited to chair a roundtable on the topic of green communications and, specifically, what the experience of McDonald’s recent McStories Twitter misadventure might tell us about social media sustainability communications.