Social media tools are just that – tools to help you for a
particular need or project. They?ll come and go, but the people won?t.
Get your interaction and relationship right with the people and the tools will work themselves out.
Archives for April 2009
Toolsets
Social media tools are just that – tools to help you for a
particular need or project. They?ll come and go, but the people won?t.
Get your interaction and relationship right with the people and the tools will work themselves out.
Does Twitter Monitor Its Brand? Fake-Twitter.com Suggests No
Do you monitor your brand and what’s being said about you? I’m guessing that you do – after all, you need to know what’s being said in your name, particularly in our fast-paced connected worlds.
I’m beginning to wonder about Twitter, though.
The micro-blogging company isn’t having a great time of things at the minute. From network stability issues to the recent malware attack, it’s been a testing time for Twitter.
Thanks to a new website, it could become even more testing – yet Twitter doesn’t seem particularly bothered. Should they be?
Fake-Twitter.com is a site that allows you to choose any Twitter user and make a fake Twitter status update. This is then posted like a tweet and, at a glance, looks like the real thing. If you’re not a Twitter user, you might even think it’s the genuine article.
Even if you see that it’s fake, I’m guessing that the fake tweet will show up in search engine results and look like a genuine post. You can see how damaging this could be to someone’s name or brand. So, far from being a little bit of fun, Fake-Twitter.com is ethically questionable.
So where is Twitter in all of this? So far, nowhere – yet don’t you think they should be taking action against the site, in order to protect its own users?
Even if that was legally a gray area, Twitter could take down Fake-Twitter.com for copyright breach on the site’s design, which is just like the real Twitter set up.
Maybe there’s no response yet because Twitter is busy dealing with the malware attacks on their servers – so here’s some help to the Twitter team:
- The Fake-Twitter domain is registered at GoDaddy.com under the name of Ryan Cornwell of Columbus, OH. You can get full details – address, email, etc – here.
- The site itself is hosted at DreamHost.com, which is located in Brea, CA – so there should be no issues with overseas hosting legalities.
- One of the co-creators of Fake-Twitter.com is Twitter user @topherchris – I’m sure you could ask him about Fake-Twitter.com, abuse of the site and the design copyright issue.
There’s not a lot more I can (or should) do – I’m not a Twitter employee and I have my own tasks at hand. But I am a Twitter user that cares about the Twitter community, as well as the potential damage this could do to individuals and brands,? hence the collection of information for you.
It only took me about half an hour to collate all the details and do some digging on the people behind it.
The question now, Twitter, is what are you going to do about it?
How about you? Should Twitter be taking action or is Fake-Twitter.com just a harmless joke?
- Update April 13 – As of 9.00pm EST, the Fake-Twitter website is closed following an official takedown request from Twitter.
Lazy Sundays – Just Kickin It with Jac Star
According to figures, there are roughly 175,000 new blogs started every day. That’s a lot of reading to take in, even for the most avid blog reader.
So, to try and help just a little, I’m going to use Sundays as an opportunity to share a blogger and their blog with you. It won’t be restricted to social media, PR or marketing either. There are a lot more to read than just the bloggers from my neck of the woods.
I’ll also be focusing more on lesser-known blogs – after all, the big guys don’t really need another recommendation, do they? So, without further ado, I give you Lazy Sundays – I hope you enjoy.
Just Kickin’ It with Jac Star
Okay, so the first recommendation is with a biased slant – it’s my wife’s blog, Just Kickin’ It.
But, before you cry foul and call the Preferential Police, I can honestly say that it’s a blog I’d recommend anyway, regardless of relationship.
What I like about Just Kickin’ It is that it’s a multi-subject blog that works. Sometimes you can get blogs that cover different topics, or niches, and some areas can be stronger than others, or at the very least, hit and miss.
Just Kickin’ It avoids this for one big reason – the author Jac Star really does have a passion for each area she covers. From the latest book reviews that cover everything from teen fiction to erotic novels, to calling people out on their stupidity in her infamous rants, Jac offers each post a human voice.
She’s also got a great line in biting humour – just check out her take on? Nadya Suleman (the octuplet mother) as an example.
Yet for all the cutting wit and recognizable rants, Just Kickin’ It offers a sensitive side as well, with the Dear Jac section. Here, Jac looks at problems that blog readers send in and offers her advice on the situation. She’s not pretending to be a psychiatrist – instead, she offers the view that an unbiased friend who cares would. And that’s what makes it work.
So, there you have it. Book reviews, thoughts and stories, rants and recommendations, all rolled up in Jac Star’s inimitable style.
If you’re looking for something other than the normal marketing, social media or business blog, you could do a lot worse than visit Just Kickin’ It. Even if it didn’t belong to my wife, I’d still recommend it – and I can’t say fairer than that.
Check out Just Kickin’ It with Jac Star for yourself and if you like what you find, why don’t you take a minute to subscribe? I think you’ll enjoy.
Tipping the Scales
So there’s been plenty written about why bloggers hate PR people.
From lazy pitches to not knowing names and audience, there’s a veritable mish-mash of scorn poured on us PR nuisances from a lot of bloggers.
And, yes, some of it is warranted and trust me, I’m the first to call out bad PR practices.
But you know that just like anything, there’s always a flip side. Here’s an example.
I was speaking with a very good friend of mine who runs her own PR agency. She’s established a terrific reputation as one of the best PR people around and has deservedly won awards for her approach. Simply put, she’s a role model for great PR.
We were talking about the relationship between bloggers and PR and how we can improve it (“we” being both the blogosphere and the PR industry). This was when my friend shared one of her examples as to why that improvement might be further off than hoped.
She was working with a client whose core audience were “mommy bloggers”. The client’s product was ideally suited to the thousands of moms that have families of their own and blog about products in that niche. So, it would make sense for the PR campaign to connect with the blogging audience it’s suited to. So far, so good.
When my friend approached some of the key bloggers in this field, she had this response: “It’s $75 for a positive review, $100 if there’s an image attached.” When my friend queried this, she was told, “Get your client to splash the cash. If you’re getting paid, we want paid too.”
Say what?
Now, I understand about paid blogging and I have no qualms with it, as long as the blogger is upfront that it’s a sponsored post and that the review remains unbiased. Heck, we all need to make a living, but if you can’t offer full disclosure and non-bias then don’t take the money.
But this isn’t paid blogging – it’s simply a company asking (through their PR agency) if you’d be interested in product testing. You get first shot at the new line and you get to use and keep the product.
But you’re saying that if I pay $75, I’ll get a “positive review”? Isn’t this false advertising, or marketing, or whatever you wish to call it?
What happens if the product is crap? Will you still tell your readers that it’s great, because you’ve agreed to offer a positive review? How do you think your readers would feel about that? After all, aren’t they your most important audience?
Or is this just another point in your one-upmanship game with the PR industry?
Now, I’m not saying all bloggers (mommy or otherwise) are like this, either when it comes to product reviews or in the relationship they have with PR. I have some fantastic relationships with many bloggers and I couldn’t do a lot of my work without them.
But to those bloggers that my friend had the misfortune of dealing with?
A blog is your personal voice. Your readers are your community. Is both your voice and community something you’d happily sell down the river for a few bucks?
Because if they are, then that’s the real bad PR.