Social media and the tools that enable conversation and citizen journalism are a good thing.  And even if it were not, it is a genie that will never go back into the tiny traditional media bottle.  But it remains a much more power tool for mischief than it is for brand building.  Take a look at a couple of things that happened this week.

First there was the phenomenon of the wolf t-shirt.  This unquestionably ugly artifact was Amazon’s best seller.  Why?  Because some very smart folks had some fun in gaming the Amazon system.

Then there was the anti-Starbucks campaign.  They combined a very smart strategy — identifying and drafting on Starbucks twitter campaign — with some very easy to execute and social media friendly tactics to turn Starbucks’ branding campaign into a billboard for anti-Starbucks protest.

So it will be interesting to see how the Obama Administration fares.  They’re putting a lot of political eggs into the social media basket.  Many credit their online savvy for their winning election.  And they get kudos for their recent revamping of the Federal government’s online face.

But if pranksters can play havoc with brands like Amazon.com and Starbucks, is it just time before they turn their eyes on the new social media savvy government?