It’s the run up to Valentine’s Day and, like every February, retailers are doing their very best to flog heart-shaped wares.  Nestled comfortably alongside the usual tat – sorry, quality merchandise – however, I’ve noticed some more unusual items creep in to store inventories this year.

Trying to access the tiny Meal Deal section of Sainsbury’s this lunchtime I had to pass through what could only be described as a substantial pink grotto of goods – or bads.  In addition to the forest of roses and sea of chocolates I also encountered heart-shaped Star Wars chocolate lollies of all things, and -would you believe it – a soft toy snail that, when squeezed, played some touching verses of a romantic song.

Now, while you could fairly argue that Star Wars merchandise caters for the child within, the same couldn’t be said of the toy.  Is this for the hidden snail within us all?

Moving away from my critical appraisal of Sainsbury’s merchandise I should point out that the bizarre assortment of goodies for your special Romeo or Juliet extends deep into the online world.

Some ideas are genuinely a positive step forward, like U.S. Millennial couple’s LGBT greeting card company.  Singing soft toy snails might be odd, but if straight couples have the right to buy these and other oddities for one another so too should the LGBT community.

Other services are just odd.  Fullstop.  Take Mystery Potato.com, for example.  As if it wasn’t already strange enough to send someone a potato in the post, this company have raised Cupid’s arrow even higher by offering lovers the chance to “bring joy and confusion like you would not believe” and send one another a potato.  Because nothing says “I love you” like a potato.  Apparently.

Social media isn’t free from the clutches of snails and spuds either.  However, while the spuds haven’t been roasted on Twitter, marketing on less traditional platforms can easily backfire.

Meet 29 year old Hawaiian politician Greggor Ilagan, who is running for the State Senate.  Being a youngster himself Ilgan thought he could be crafty and use the dating app Tinder (yes, you read that correctly) to connect with the young electorate.  This wouldn’t have been a terrible idea had he stuck to a more appropriate platform predominantly for socialising – rather than dating – like Facebook or Instagram.

Unfortunately for my growing laughter lines, however, the campaign achieved more than just political engagement. Having set his preferences to both genders in order to maximise potential campaign reach, Ilagan received a lot of interest from male voters seeking more than a political discussion, and was forced to remove the profile a result.

Perhaps he should have sent out a potato.

The take-home message offered by these spuds, snails and tinder messages is appropriate targeting.  Social media and other forms of digital marketing have extraordinary potential to connect brands with new and receptive audiences, which has been demonstrated by numerous successful advertising campaigns.

However, choosing the wrong platform for your product or service may waste more than time or money.  As the case of Greggor Ilagan demonstrated negative PR could be a potential consequence.  If you aren’t sure how social media could work for you make sure you read around and ask the experts.  And we promise we won’t send you a potato.

By Georgina Hawkins, Community Manager at Shake Social.