Social Media This Week: November 28, 2008

Social Media in a Crisis

The news: Within minutes of militants opening fire at various locations in Mumbai Wednesday night, updates were being posted through microblogging site Twitter at a rate of approximately 1,000 per minute. For example, Arun Shanbhag, was visiting his family in Mumbai and has been journaling about the militant attack on different sites including his personal blog, Twitter, and Flickr (a popular photo sharing site). Different sites were set up to help families in need and to also ask for help while many Twitter users were sending pleas for blood donors.

Key question: The social media reaction to this horrible event underscores that Twitter is to 2008 what Facebook was to 2007. Will it become as much of a must-have marketing communications tool as Facebook has become?

WordPress Direct

The news: Spam blogs (or splogs) are a nuisance on the Internet. Splogs are junk blogs created to promote websites or sell advertising by republishing someone else’s content. On Monday, a site called WordPress Direct officially launched where users can create a blog by picking a subject, typing in keywords associated with that theme and the site will pull content from a number of sites and post it on the blog the user has set up automatically. There have been discussions on the web that this is a lazy form of blogging that ignores the intellectual property of other authors on the web.

Key question: Can search engines minimize the impact of splogs by downplaying their content in search results?

Cyber Bullying Case Closed

The news: Further to my post last week, the cyber bulling trial came to an end this week. Just to recap, the defendant, Lori Drew, posed as a teenage boy over MySpace to send first friendly and then menacing messages to a teen that killed herself shortly after receiving a message in 2006. Drew was convicted of three misdemeanor counts of computer fraud on Wednesday. The terms of service on the site state that users must submit “truthful and accurate” information. Drew’s defense was that she never read the terms of service in detail before setting up the fake profile.

Key question: If this verdict stands, will every site on the Internet get to define the law?

Stripper turns car thief

I had to share this video from our Boomerang Tracking client. The Boomerang device sends out a signal so stolen cars can be found and recovered. Here's video from an actual track involving an unexpected thief.

Social Media This Week: November 21, 2008

The Motrin Migraine

The news: During International Babywearing Week, Motrin launched an advertisement targeting moms saying that “babywearing” is a pain. There was an uproar on the popular microblogging site Twitter where social-media savvy moms were proclaiming that Motrin missed the mark, that they love carrying their babies in a sling and that they were going to ban Motrin in their households. McNeil Consumer Healthcare, the maker of Motrin, responded by taking the ad off of the Motrin site. Motrin.com went silent briefly amid the Twitter banter before reappearing with an apology to those moms who were offended. See below to watch the original Motrin ad and a parody of it.

Key question: More than any previous case, the "Motrin Moms" case underscores that influencers can have a tremendous and immediate impact on your brand, organization or messages. How will brands respond?




Cyber Bullying Trial Begins

The news: In October of 2006, a 13-year old girl committed suicide after a teenage boy by the name of “Josh Evans” befriended her, flirted with her and eventually told her the world would be better off without her over the popular website MySpace. It turns out that “Josh Evans” was in fact a mother of another 13-year old girl who attended the same school as the victim. The mother’s plot was to befriend the vulnerable teen with this persona to find out if she was spreading rumours about her own daughter. This case went in front of federal prosecutors on Wednesday where they accused the mother of preying on an insecure teen. The mother has been charged with conspiracy and three counts of unauthorized access to protected computers; each charge carries a maximum five-year prison term. She has pleaded not guilty.

Key question: The case is believed to be one of the very first cyber-bullying trials. Should real-world laws govern interactions on online social networks?

Google Terminates Viral World

The news: After only five months, Google has decided to nix its virtual world, Lively. Google has stated that they are going to focus more on its "core search, ads and apps business”. Also, Google reflected on Lively's inability to stand out from the rest of the virtual reality crowd. Second Life is the most popular virtual world on the net where people create animated alter egos (avatars) and socialize with other avatars. See below for a video from Lively.

Key question: Is five months enough time to test an application online?

In defence of ghost blogging

There's nothing unethical about ghost blogging.

Before I explain, let me emphasize that I've never done it, I probably never will and we at com.motion recommend that clients not do it. But not because of ethics.

"Ghost blogging" refers to the practice of a professional writer or PR type writing a blog on behalf of an executive or celebrity. This is very much frowned on by most of the social media fishbowl. This point was underscored in a recent session on ethics at the Talk is Cheap unconference at Centennial College and a followup post by panelist Dave Fleet.

After labeling ghost blogging as unethical, the panelists were put on the hotseat by Centennial College public relations students and other participants. Why is it okay to write speeches for clients but not to write blog posts? Dave and Michael O'Connor Clarke said the difference is that when a CEO reads a speech, he takes ownership of the words, even if he didn't write them. Which makes it ethical. But this differentiator doesn't apply to quotes PR people write for executives in press releases, the president's statement in a monthly newsletter or op-eds (newspaper columns) written on their behalf.

The ethical divide isn't disclosure since ghost-writing is rarely acknowledged offline except when it comes to books. And its not expectations, since most newspaper readers probably assume that columns attributed to executives were actually written by them.

So either all this stuff - from ghost quotes to ghost messages to ghost op-eds - is ethical or none of it is. And I lean towards the latter former. (Note, I wrote latter here when I meant to write former, and yes, it does change the meaning of my post).

There is one important difference, but it's not ethical. The difference is consequences. Even if most readers aren't aware that op-eds aren't always written by the "writer," the repercussions of getting found out are almost non-existent. But ghost blogging comes with a motrinmoms-esque public relations risk.

And that's the real reason why - ethics aside - we don't recommend it.

Social Media This Week: November 14, 2008

Today com.motionblog launches a new weekly feature where we help our readers keep on top of the latest developments in the rapidly-evolving world of social media. Check back each Friday for the top headlines of the past week.

Live.com by Microsoft

The news: This week, Microsoft’s Live.com online portal has evolved from a search engine into a new social network. Site users are automatically connected with their contacts on the popular instant messaging portal Windows Live Messenger. The users’ profiles include basic personal information and can pull content from other blogging sites, microblogging sites, and photo sharing sites. Users can access other online services including e-mail, calendar, online storage and downloading services that include other Office programs such as Movie Maker. Microsoft’s goal is to ultimately increase site traffic on Live.com and they’ve leveraged what they own: instant messaging.

Key question: Can Microsoft gain enough traction with Live.com to become a real player in the mass social network market dominated by MySpace and Facebook?

Facebook Engagement Ads

The news: Using a healthy mix of both online advertising and social networking, Facebook launched a new “engagement ad” format this week. The ads appear on the main login page and prompt users to RSVP to a TV show season finale or comment on a movie trailer. That ad then gets promoted by sharing the update with the user’s friends. Facebook is charging more for the new engagement ads than it currently does for the display ads. The ads give Facebook users three unique experiences: commenting on ads for all friends to see, giving virtual gifts and becoming a fan of a certain ad.

Key question: Can Facebook turn an enormously successful social network into a successful business model?

Sponsored Videos on YouTube

The news: Although there has been buzz for some time, YouTube formally announced the launch of Sponsored Videos. The videos direct viewers to certain clips that they might be interested in after conducting a search. Marketers will be able to use this new service by seeding a campaign or to launch a new video. The product strives to help advertisers target keywords in a cost-per-click auction similar to that of Google’s AdWords service. The ads have a thumbnail image and three lines of promotional verbiage pointing to a specific page.

Key question: When will Sponsored Videos (if at all) replace AdWords on Google?

Tim Hortons rolls up the social media rim

Note: Today com.motionblog launches a regular feature where we take a close look at a brand or organization using social media for marketing communications.

How much does a cup of Tim Hortons’ coffee mean to Canadians? For years, Tim Hortons has been receiving letters through its customer service department and franchisees. They’ve already turned some of these letters into commercials. Now they’re turning the concept into a social media campaign.

Everycup.ca is Tim Horton’s first foray into social media. The website, developed by our sister MDC agency Henderson Bas, is an effort to reinforce the idea that every Tim Hortons' cup tells a story. The site encourages Canadians to share their Tim Hortons’ stories, photos and videos and it features Tim Hortons’ first commercial. Similar to other social sites, viewers have the ability to comment on and rate the stories they are reading. Readers also have the opportunity to share the stories with friends over Facebook, send through their e-mail and even make the content the wallpaper image on their desktop.

These branded social sites are useful tools for marketers because they can garner great, honest feedback from their consumers. However, it’s at least as important to monitor and measure the conversations taking place away from branded communities. And time will tell what the company’s tolerance is for negative stories or comments.

What do you think? Is this a site that will build enough engagement that people will return to time and time again?

Has Obama Twittered his last Tweet?

I've heard that if you keep a birdfeeder in the fall, you need to keep it stocked through the winter, else the birds that have come to rely on your feed will die. It reminds me of one of my favourite quotes, from St. Exupéry's Le Petit Prince: "Tu deviens responsable pour toujours de ce que tu as apprivoisé." Translation: We are forever responsible for what we have tamed.

There is perhaps a lesson here for Barack Obama who used Twitter - a popular social media tool - throughout the recent election campaign to communicate with more than 120,000 followers, but quietly exited the conversation after his historic victory. Valleywag accuses Obama of having "pumped and dumped" his supporters - Twittering them into donating time and money, then dropping them for a more "presidential" means of communication.

His last message came Nov. 4 at 2:34 p.m.:

We just made history. All of this happened because you gave your time, talent and passion. All of this happened because of you. Thanks

Then radio silence.

Like the president-elect, many brands and organizations turn to social media for one-off campaigns, but the best results come when the commitment is long-term. Barack Obama will need those followers again - perhaps much sooner than four years from now when he returns to the polls. He's not past the engagement phase; he's only begun.