Tag: Twitter

The Governor, The Teenager And Twitter: A PR Lesson

Posted on by Dorothy Crenshaw

The awesome power of social media may be matched only by the withering force of teenage scorn.

I was startled by the social blowback resulting from Kansas Governor Sam Brownback’s public feud with a local high school student. It started last week when Emma Sullivan and her class attended a youth event in Topeka where Brownback was a speaker. Sullivan, a self-professed liberal and arts lover, tweeted her distaste for the arts-defunding governor to her 65 followers, capped by a hashtag created for the occasion – #heblowsalot.

Juvenile, right? Rude, or silly, depending on your point of view, yet harmless. But Brownback’s staff, who obviously track hashtags like #heblowsalot, spotted the surly tweet and contacted Sullivan’s high school principal, who demanded an apology from her. She ultimately refused. The 18-year-old’s stance, and her story, has spread faster than a prairie brushfire. She’s added 14,000 Twitter followers and has been interviewed by dozens of media outlets.  (My mother would have washed my iPhone out with soap, but never mind.) A Rosa Parks for subversive tweeting has been born.

The governor’s Facebook page (which to his staff’s credit, has apparently not been filtered) is overrun with comments, mostly negative. And yesterday the inciting tweet came home to roost when Brownback, clearly on the defensive, was the one apologizing. He posted an official statement claiming an overreaction by his staff and issuing a mea culpa of sorts to the 18-year-old.

There are many lessons here. The PR learning may lie in the Brownback team’s hamhanded reaction. Rather than ignoring the rogue tweet, laughing it off, or trying to reach out to a disaffected constituent, they attempted to extract an apology by pressuring the school, which some say is an attempt to stifle Sullivan’s right to free speech. Others, like The Washington Post’s Alexandra Petri, think the whole twitstorm came down to Sullivan’s bad ‘tude and simple discourtesy.

Still, it doesn’t go over well when an authority figure overreacts to the harmless actions of a younger person. It can make you look like a bully. And reason, or – better yet –  humor, is far more disarming than punitive measures. It was just a hashtag. (Sullivan’s claim that she insulted the Governor to his face wasn’t even true.)

It’s also interesting that so many commenters were offended that taxpayer dollars were spent on social media monitoring by the Governor’s staff. Now, as any communicator will tell you, it’s smart to track constituent messages in real time, but it just points out the damned-if-you-do/damned-if-you-don’t dilemma facing so many elected officials. I fault the Brownback response, not the monitoring. The team overplayed its hand, and the public apology was the right move. For the record, however, he shouldn’t have blamed the twittereaction on his staff.

But, it seems obvious that the Brownback backpedaling says more about public cynicism and fed-up-ness than it does about freedom of tweets, teenagers, or even a slow news week. With Congressional approval at 8%, and most elected officials gearing up for a nasty battle in 2012, it’s hard out there for a pol. A little social media savvy – and PR sense – can go a long way.

When It Comes To Social Media, Faking It Isn't Making It

Posted on by Dorothy Crenshaw

The recent rash of bogus Twitter follower scandals, like Newt Gingrich‘s 1.3 million supposed fans, and the oil industry’s apparent astroturfing efforts, are entertaining blog fodder. But they’re also important as a reminder of what’s erroneous about linking social media status to a friends and follower count.

(It’s actually unclear what percentage of Gingrich’s followers are faux, but his number is particularly impressive when compared to GOP front-runner Mitt Romney 68,000 number. Yep, mine’s bigger than yours. You know how boys are.)

It bothers me that these mini-scandals undermine good ole Twitter as a platform and a business tool. Just as you’re judged by the company you keep in the real world, Twitter has always risked getting a bad reputation. It’s seen by some as a perfect hangout for the egotists, hucksters, and fakes. That’s not the Twitter that I know and love.

And it would seem to make no sense to the account holders. Why would anyone actually pay a third-party for access to bogus accounts when social media is about connecting and engaging others? Why, like Anthony Weiner, would you risk having the wrong kind of fans – e.g. porn actresses and spambots? The obvious answer, of course, is pure ego. They’re willing to look foolish by inflating their following in order to impress the few engaged fans that they actually have.

Are you listening, Klout?  The obsession with numbers as metrics is the real culprit here. Judging someone’s social influence by follower count just isn’t viable. I know sophisticated services like Klout claim to go beyond the raw fan numbers, but they are still too Twitter-centric and too focused on the numbers. These recent Fangate incidents are another reminder.

True influence is evidenced by quality and frequency of content, sharing, and action. Most of all, it’s about who’s really listening. And when it comes to the shiny new tool or the point of view that misses this simple fact, well, I just don’t follow.

Harnessing The PR Power Of Twitter

Posted on by Lindsay

Twitter has exploded into one of the most rapidly expanding social platforms in the world, with over 200 million users to date. In an industry where one wrong tweet can compromise a company’s image, how can you use Twitter as a force of “PR good” for your client?

We all know to monitor conversations about our clients, and have gotten into the habit of creating lists to track the people and companies we want to keep tabs on. Here are some tips for effectively enhancing your client’s Twitter presence:

Interact. There’s a big difference between engaging and tweeting, and it is as important for companies to participate in conversations as it is for them to share their own news. There are several ways to do this, and we all know the basics. Giving your sources credit and using hashtags are two easy ways to converse. As we were recently reminded, make sure you are using relevant hashtags at all times. If you’re having trouble finding a conversation to join, take advantage of Twitter’s new advanced search tool. Remember – it’s more about engagement (conversation) than mere presence.

Pitch. Reporters who are active on Twitter often use it to look for sources when they’re working on a big story in a short amount of time. Even if you haven’t established a connection with the reporter, don’t be afraid to tweet them offering your client up as an expert source. The best way to do this is through direct messaging. If you can’t send them a message on Twitter, send a quick email. I’ve secured several media interviews using this tactic simply by paying attention to the news list I keep and checking it often, and then responding as soon as possible. In the long run, reporters are going to see you as a reliable source that can help get them the information they need in a short amount of time.

Host a Twitter chat. Twitter chats are gaining popularity as people are increasingly joining the community. To effectively conduct a chat on Twitter, partner with someone who has a large presence across several platforms (especially Twitter). Pick a topic that your client and the partner can easily discuss, and establish a hashtag. After that, make sure you and the partner promote the conversation in advance so that people join in. One example of a great Twitter chat is #prstudchat. Originally started as a conversation for PR students on Twitter, it has now branched out into a networking group with its own page on LinkedIn.

Integrate! The fact that you’re on Twitter doesn’t mean your customers will know to look for you. Resources such as widgets and the tweet and follow buttons are easy ways to cross-promote your account, and can be customized to your needs. Include a follow button on your homepage and ‘about us’ page and anywhere else you promote your company. Tweet buttons and widgets are great for virtual newsrooms as well, as they show what your company is talking about (beside their own news).

These are just a few of our tips for managing a company’s Twitter presence. Share your own tips below!

Recipe For A Twitter Fail: Was Entenmann’s #Guilty of Hashtag Hijacking?

Posted on by Dorothy Crenshaw


Call it a half-baked attempt to be topical…or perhaps, just a mistake. As Twitter erupted following the surprise guilty verdict in the Casey Anthony murder trial, Entenmann’s adopted the rapidly trending #notguilty hashtag to tweet a whimsical update about “eating all the tasty treats you want.”

The tweet lasted only minutes. Someone realized the juxtaposition wasn’t appetizing, and it was swiftly deleted. Entenmann’s then posted an apology – actually, two apologies – for the tasteless tweet, explaining that it was purely unintentional.

That’s hard to swallow. But, hey, Twitter mistakes happen. (Just ask Anthony Weiner.) What takes my breath away, though clearly it shouldn’t, is how a minor mistake, quickly corrected, blew up faster than quick-rising dough.

TechCrunch posted a harsh item that was instantly picked up all over the place, and the thing was viral. Even mainstream media was snacking on the tasty tweet. It was widely compared to Kenneth Cole’s Twitter fail of last spring, albeit with a greater spirit of  indulgence. And the same fake Twitter account that posted bogus updates about Cole has popped up again as @EntenmannsPR, complete with truly nasty posts. (Tip for @Entenmann’s: Don’t dignify it by mentioning it by name in your stream, even to deny authorship.)

Three hours later, Entenmann’s social media agency, Likable, posted a lengthier mea culpa taking full responsibility for the mistake. Except for a self-serving reference to the founder’s pro bono work, it was textbook apology PR.

In my view, the whole thing is a storm in a coffee cup. (Am I the only one bothered as much by the tweet’s awkward syntax?) The harsh justice served up by the blogosphere hardly fits the ‘crime’ here.

But #CookieGate does point out the need for social media oversight. Twitter and similar social media  platforms may look like a piece of cake, but they’re not. Oversight by an experienced professional, a PR sensibility, and simple good judgment are essential ingredients of a social media plan.

How Bin Laden Renewed My Faith In "Old" Media

Posted on by Dorothy Crenshaw

It was after 11:00 p.m. eastern time when a tweet caught my eye, then another. Within moments, I learned that Bin Laden was dead, and that President Obama was preparing to speak about it on all major networks. This without leaving my Twitter app or clicking on a single link.

The speed with which the news ricocheted around the Web was impressive. Facts, opinion, sentiment, jokes, and quotes about the raid were available within minutes. Most fascinating to me were @BrianStelter‘s updates about the furious re-editing of The New York Times’ front page at, quite literally, the 11th hour. It was the big one, and it burst in at the end of a lazy weekend as a tour de force for Obama, a boost for the country, and – most notably for communications pros – a direct hit for Twitter.

And yet, the first thing I and many others did upon learning the news was turn on the TV to await the President’s remarks, while surfing for analysis about what it all means. What’s the reaction of the Muslim world? Has Obama just won reelection? Should I re-book my flight for next week?

My appreciation of the “old” media’s handling of the unfolding Bin Laden story may have been heightened by the tragic deaths of two journalists in Libya recently. And it was reinforced by the other top headline on my feed, which was Lara Logan’s account of her horrifying sexual assault in Egypt.

Yet, it’s not about the danger, even if it should be. It’s about the role of “real” journalism in our culture. Yes, it’s a milestone that one of the biggest stories since 9/11 itself broke on Twitter. And lingering on Twitter and trading updates until well past midnight gave me that addictive sense of community and conversation that makes it so irresistible.

But, as with most major breaking news, the tweets left me craving the broader society of the mass media audience. This might be probably generational on my part. But Romanesko reports that New York Times page views were up a blistering 86 percent overnight. So, I’m not alone in the need for real-time insights into how the news could affect my life, New York City, our national standing, and the broader political landscape.

So, I’m grateful for the raid for all the usual reasons, and even for its validation of social media. But, it also renewed my faith in the “traditional” press, who rose to the challenge like champs. I believe our enormously symbolic victory over an iconic terrorist can also be seen as an equally big win for “real” journalism as we (thankfully) still know it today. And perhaps that’s yet another “mission accomplished.”

Genius PR Move Of The Year – Conan on Twitter

Posted on by Dorothy Crenshaw

Before late February, the closest Conan O’Brien came to social media was making lame jokes about tweeting celebrities on his show. So, when his updates came over my Twitter stream, I thought it was a clever way to stay relevant for a guy who’s barred from going on television for six more months.

@ConanOBrien‘s bio seemed to say it all. “I had a show. Then I had a different show.  Now I have a Twitter account.” The tweets were wry, self-deprecating, and occasionally absurd – vintage Conan. Within a day, he had 300,000 followers. Today, the count is over twice that number, easily besting @JayLeno.

TeamConan then proceeded to set up spin-off Twitter streams for some of the, uh, characters in his own tweets – Squirrel, Sharpie, his freckles, even. The man’s beard is in a mock-competition with his freckles and has over 10,000 followers. I’m not kidding.

So, when news of Conan’s multi-market comedy tour hit a couple of weeks later, I realized the motive behind the Twitter madness. Promoted with only a handful of tweets, the “Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Comedy Tour” was sold out within the day, at least in New York. Fully in character, O’Brien was quoted in the closest thing he made to a press statement, “It was either a massive 30-city tour or start helping out around the house.” Nice use of social media…and celebrity, of course.

But what really got to me was Conan’s inspired choice to anoint someone at random as his sole, um, followee. Sarah Killen, an unassuming 19-year-old student from Michigan and Twitter novice, garnered thousands of followers after being selected as the one and only person that @ConanOBrien follows. Since then, @LovelyButton has received “a lot of stuff”,  including a custom-designed gown for her upcoming wedding, and the kind of notoriety usually reserved for reality-show fameballs. Which she is most definitely not.

Which is why the Twitter stunt worked so well. Conan fans are relishing his apparent outfoxing of the NBC brass and Jay Leno, whom no one would accuse of being a social media hipster. Yet, in bestowing Internet celebrity on the normal-to-the-point-of-boring Killen, Conan seems to be one-upping the master of the genre, David Letterman. It’s like Letterman plucking intern Stephanie Birkitt out of nowhere and making her a TV star – without the “creepy” soap opera that followed. And for social media marketers, he’s actually showing us how it’s done.

 

 

How To Buy Friends And Influence People

Posted on by Dorothy Crenshaw

Maybe money can’t buy you love, but these days it can buy friends…at least, of a sort. I was interested in Web traffic company uSocial’s recent announcement that it will offer packages for Facebook that start at 1000 friends for as little as $177. Overnight, a faux network….who knew friends came so cheap?
uSocial, which boldly calls itself “the world’s most innovative advertising company” has already built a reputation for itself, although I wouldn’t call it one for innovation.

It touts a dubious press release “distribution” service on the social Web, and it claims to sell packages of Twitter followers 1000 at a time. Although it’s vague about its search methods (something about targeting users with similar interests), it seems no different from the software packages that target thousands of users with indiscriminate follow invites. In other words, spam. Twitter has tried to have it shut down, so far without apparent success.

(Somewhat more innovative than its Twitter carpet-bombing is uSocial’s approach to popular bookmarking sites like Digg. It lets advertisers buy votes in hopes of driving traffic to their bookmarks and sending their links to sections that get the most visibility.  But I digress.)

With Twitter’s follow model, where anyone can follow anyone, and it’s hardly worth the trouble to block spam-bots, this kind of stuff is expected. But, a Facebook invasion’s more significant given its size and permission-based friend set-up. It’s bound to make users more wary, and Facebook, naturally, has denounced it.

uSocial’s shady methods have elicited the usual firestorm of criticism on sites like Mashable, but it’s amazingly open about its goals. This is in contrast to other, cleverer social marketing scammers who fly under the radar to avoid being shut down or blocked by legitimate sites.

And, maybe its methods aren’t ao new. One commenter described a Japanese practice known as benri ya san. Literally “handyman,” the expression can refer to those who are paid to show up at weddings, funerals, and other social gatherings in order to build up the esteem of the host. In other words, rent-a-friend.

It may be a time-honored practice, but junk by any other name is still…well, junk. It threatens to skew the social media space with bogus accounts and spammy offers. It’ll probably be the last straw for a few fed-up Facebook users. But, mostly, I feel bad for the real victims of the scam, who are any clients willing to pay for social  Web prospects by the bucketful. Money might buy friends, but it won’t get you long-term engagement.

Does Twitter’s Pointless Babble Remind You Of Anything?

Posted on by Dorothy Crenshaw

Just about any half-baked study claiming to be about Twitter seems to generate lots of attention lately. Cue the salt shaker.

But, I was entertained by a recent example of Twitter insight.  A market intelligence company called Pear Analytics had the idea to analyze 2000 tweets over a period of two weeks’ time, grouping them into six categories. Their conclusion? Fully 40 percent were considered “pointless babble.”  I know, shocking.  A close second, at 37 percent, were tweets that were termed “conversational.”

But, here’s the good news. Tweets considered “self-promotion” were counted at 5.85  percent. Most surprisingly, “spam” was way down on the list at only 3.75 percent of all tweets.  You could have fooled me.

Now, the study’s usefulness is limited, for many reasons.  The categories are completely subjective.  I’m no expert, but I doubt they conform to good research practice. I mean, could “pointless babble” have possibly been coined to make a catchy headline? More importantly, who’s to say that my “conversation” isn’t your “pointless babble”?  And, where’s the line between self-promotion and spam?  The sample and timeframe were pathetically small when compared to the Twitter universe….I could go on.

But, still. Despite my mixed feelings about Twitter and the hype that surrounds it, the Pear study was interesting. It offered one of those moments I can only call a blinding flash of the obvious.  The categories and the analysis – contrived though they may be – seems to mirror my daily social interactions in the offline world.

There’s plenty of meaningful conversation, but it comes with a fair amount of random nonsense. And, along the way, there are nuggets of news, passed-along information (i.e., gossip), and, yes, even useless garbage.  Often, I have to repeat myself or ask for clarification, because my family and I don’t actually always listen to one another. Could it possibly be that Twitter is a lot like…well, real life?

Zappos And The Social Media Myth

Posted on by Dorothy Crenshaw

It’s a common perception that Zappos, which was just acquired by Amazon.com, was able to build its brand, and even its business, on the strength of social media.  After all, CEO Tony Hsieh is a Twitter celebrity with over a million followers.  Zappos encourages its employees to Twitter, and more than 400 do. A model of transparency, it aggregates public mentions on a page on its website.  No wonder it’s been hailed by traditional and social media as the one company that does it right.  One writer even opined that Amazon was motivated to acquire Zappos to get a little of its “social media stardust.”

That’s nonsense. The soul of Zappos, and the open secret of its success, has nothing to do with Twitter. It bears remembering that long before Hsieh tweeted his first update, Zappos had taken the lead in the online shoe market. Hsieh’s really big idea wasn’t showing his personal side on Twitter.  It was making returns a competitive advantage. It was, in essence, beating Amazon at its own game. It was focusing, really focusing, on the customer.  And, to Zappos, customers are not only shoppers, but employees and vendors, too.

If you search for articles and posts about Hsieh and Zappos long prior to 2008, when he opened his celebrated Twitter account, your eyes will glaze over at the numbing repetition of its customer service mantra. Hsieh describes the employee recruiting and training program, including the counter-intuitive “quitting bonus,” as shaping a customer service culture. He philosophizes about transparency, openness, and authenticity – all in service of the customer, of course.  He, and the partners who back him, take the long view on the company’s ultra-liberal returns policy, betting that no investment is too great if it supports customer retention.

Basically, Hsieh did two things very, very well. He articulated a customer-obsessed culture. Then, he walked the talk. Social media came naturally for Zappos later because the company never looked at it as a marketing channel, but as another way of building customer relationships and adding service.  In essence, the shoe fit.

Jeff Bezos doesn’t give a rap about Zappos’ social media profile. As Bezos himself said in describing its customer service obsession, “It is the place where Zappos begins and ends.”  I’m hoping that, for Zappos, this is a new beginning, and not an end.

Citizen Advertising, 2.0

Posted on by Dorothy Crenshaw

My Twitter account was recently suspended.  It was an accidental move apparently caused by an attempt to control spam, and it was rectified within 24 hours or so.  But for a short time, I was one of hundreds of legitimate users left out in the cold, vainly posting messages asking assistance. As one fellow complainer posted to the Twitter help desk, “You’re messing with my reputation.”

My thoughts exactly. That’s why I was interested to read about Izea‘s plan to unveil a new platform that enables Twitter users to post updates that are openly sponsored by brands and products. Izea, of course, is the company that brought us sponsored blog posts.  Those have already generated controversy and conversation (including by me.)  Just today, the New York Times reported that the FTC may soon require online media to comply with disclosure rules under its truth-in-advertising guidelines.  But, compared to blogs, personal updates like Facebook status and Twitter posts are an even grayer area. Are micro-updates actually monetizable?

Izea thinks so.  And though it says the platform is intended for “grassroots” bloggers who have only a few hundred readers, I find it hard to imagine it would be limited to those with small followings. But, in fairness, two things might separate it from the sketchy image generated by other sponsored coversation companies like Magpie.  First, Izea requires full disclosure of the sponsored tweet through use of a #spon hashtag. Second, it will deal directly with advertisers rather than through affiliate companies that tend to mask the commercial relationship.

Sponsored tweeting strikes most Twitter users as a terrible idea.  After all, there’s already too much spamming, multilevel and affiliate marketing, and those annoying attempts to game the Twitter system by making certain terms more searchable. Most importantly, social media tools like Twitter are supposed to be about an authentic conversation.

But, as I’ve posted, Twitter hasn’t really achieved that two-way exchange status, and its follower model lends itself to different forms of experimentation, particularly among those with legitimately large followings. It’ll be interesting to see if any celebrities or other power users will sign onto a pay-per-tweet kind of arrangement. It’s hard to imagine Shaquille O’Neal or Ashton Kutcher as “twitter pimps.”   Yet, we don’t object to celebrity endorsements in other media.  Is there really a difference between Kutcher appearing in a clever Coolpix ad and @aplusk tweeting about it on behalf of Canon?

For all the fuss, I’m choosing to wait and see how the sponsored tweeting turns out. It’s clear that traditional advertising must reinvent itself, and who knows – those who use originality and humor just might be part of a cool new wave in creative content.

But, the most interesting thing about this experimental monetization model is that it makes money for all involved – the platform, the Twitter user, and presumably the sponsor.  Everyone, that is, except Twitter.