The first month of 2008 is coming to a close and already we have witnessed a couple of corporate missteps as big brands attempt to navigate tricky social media waters.

Clickz reports on Targets stance that the company does not participate with non-traditional media outlets. This was the Target response to an independent blogger inquiry into the corporate office regarding a troubling billboard ad. Fair enough, but with the lines between traditional and independent publishing continuing to blur, how do you draw the line between a non-traditional media outlet and a passionate customer who blogs about relevant topics? And how do you handle a blogger who has emeged as significantly influential on your core audience on issues critical to your brand or offering? It will be interesting to see whether these practices evolve in light of the major pick-up of this exchange.

To the collective chagrin of many SCRABBLE lovers, the founders of the online app Scrabulous have been sent a cease and desist letter by Hasbro, claiming copyright infringement. The app is currently the 9th most popular app on the Facebook site by active users, generating 70 million pageviews per month. ReadWriteWeb publishes an excerpt of the Hasbro letter which encourages fans to dabble in SCRABBLE on sites that have legally licensed the interactive rights to host SCRABBLE fun. At the same time, a significant number of those fans (48,000 and growing) have joined the Save Scrabulous Facebook group in an effort to keep their addiction alive and kicking on the Facebook platform. Hurtful to Hasbro's business, or untapped opportunity to sell more product? As Stewart Holden, the publicity officer for the Association of British Scrabble Players says, it would be a shame if no agreement could be reached which enabled this huge publicity boost for the game to continue. We'll have to wait and see...