By Linda Forrest
A strange and perhaps first-of-its-kind legal situation caught my eye yesterday. A senior executive from DefJam Records was arrested for not Tweeting. Yes, you read that correctly – he refused to Tweet when the police demanded it of him and he was arrested on a litany of charges.
But, let’s back up a little.
Apparently all the kids are going crazy for Justin Bieber. I’m pretty far out of his target market, so the fact I’ve not heard of him shouldn’t surprise anyone. He’s a 15 year old pop singer who makes the girls’ hearts go pitter patter. Signed to DefJam, he was set to make an appearance Saturday at a shopping mall in Long Island. Being a savvy marketer, James Roppo, senior VP of sales for DefJam, Tweeted about the upcoming appearance, trying to drum up interest and ensure there would be a long line of adoring fans at the signing.
The tactic worked. A little too well. Three thousand young girls showed up, long before the star himself arrived, and the crowd quickly got out of control.
This is the point in the story where I debate whether I should disclose that maybe, just maybe, when I was a tween myself, there was a certain band that I was crazy about — I’m not saying who but it rhymes with Mew Hids on the Knock. And I just might have lined up outside a shopping mall in the dead of winter while I had chicken pox in order to get the autographs … of the band members’ mothers. And maybe, just maybe, I was so far back in the line that when a security guard shut the door to the mall saying that there was no way we would all get in, a mini riot of weeping young girls ensued. Maybe. Nope, too embarrassing – never happened.
Let’s just say that I can imagine how the scene quickly devolved. Hell hath no fury like 3,000 lovelorn 11 year olds scorned. The police implored Roppo to Tweet to the fans to tell them that the signing was off, but he refused. It took Justin himself Tweeting that his appearance had been canceled for the melee to break, but not before five people, including a police officer, were injured.
It’s obvious that this man did completely the wrong thing and endangered many people needlessly in the hope of drumming up publicity for his label and his client. He’s probably going to have a lot of time in a quiet place to think about his actions if he’s convicted. His charges include endangering the welfare of a child, obstruction of governmental administration, reckless endangerment and criminal nuisance.
What lessons can be learned and applied to other marketing situations?
First and foremost, always do what the police tell you to. Use common sense. Don’t endanger people with crazy stunts for the sake of publicity. I assure you it will backfire.
Second, if your market expects you to communicate using a particular channel, you cannot go offline when the going gets tough. Even in crisis situations, even if you’ve done the wrong thing, you need to communicate with your market. In this case, Roppo drew these fans using Twitter and, once they were in danger, he needed to use the same channel to disburse the crowd.
Third, know the size and scope of your situation and act accordingly. The blame has been shifted by DefJam to the shopping mall for not being prepared to handle the crowds. If this kid is the phenom he obviously seems to be, then the onus should be on the label to ensure that he’s being put somewhere than can support his legions of adoring fans. If you’re participating in market-facing activities like a trade show or conference, ensure that the level of your participation makes sense – have enough materials on hand to distribute, have enough staff on hand to manage booth traffic, and so on.
By Linda Forrest
It’s been a busy time for Twitter.
The microblogging platform, on which all of the authors on this blog have accounts – @FrancisMoran, @LindaForrest and @inmedian – has recently announced several key partnerships that will move the social media platform from the early adopter stage to the mainstream. Microsoft and Google announced a few weeks ago that they would include “Tweets” in their search results, legitimizing for many skeptics the platform as a bona fide media channel and information source. Then, today, a partnership with LinkedIn was announced wherein Twitterstreams will be included in LinkedIn profiles.
This is a big step, and should increase adoption in the professional world from the dismal figures IDC collected earlier this year. Not to mention how it will impact Twitter’s bottom-line; it’s value was theoretical for a very long time but with a handful of powerful partnerships such as these, the money will be rolling in.
By Francis Moran
Although many companies have embraced social media tools, especially for internal collaboration and customer interaction, their adoption by business has yet to cross the chasm into mainstream acceptance, according to a study by research firm IDC that was presented at this morning Social Media Breakfast in Ottawa. Similarly, IDC senior analyst Krista Napier said, “as much we hear about (social media tools) … it’s important to remember not everybody is on them yet.”
IDC’s numbers came from a recent survey of 200 business and IT leaders, most of whom could identify Facebook and Twitter as social media tools but many of whom could not see any business value in deploying them. When IDC asked the question, “What words come to mind when you think of social media?”, the most frequent answer was “Facebook” followed by “Twitter.” “Consumer” was the third most frequently stated answer, clearly indicating that businesses do not see social media as an effective business tool. This lack of enthusiasm was further reinforced by the next three most frequently cited answers, “distracting,” “waste of time” and “no business value.”
Still, the IDC study did find some companies were using such tools, although at insufficient rates to be considered mainstream. Using Geoffrey Moore’s “Crossing the chasm” model of technology adoption, IDC pegged all social media tools as still being in the early adopter phase or having just moved across the chasm towards mainstream market adoption. Leading the way were wikis, with 25% of respondents reporting their use, followed by blogs at 21.5%. Podcasts were being used by 17% of respondents while microblogging, which includes Twitter, was at a dismal 10.9%.
Pointedly, use of social networking analytics was at just 13.1%, which may explain management’s poor appetite for a tool that has yet to generally submit to rigorous measurement.
Respondents said security concerns were the biggest hurdle to greater adoption, followed by a lack of senior buy-in and decreased productivity. Those companies that were using the tools were using them most for departmental collaboration (37.5%), improved customer interactions (34.5%) and improved employee morale (30%).
A further set of numbers suggested that the situation is unlikely to improve any time soon. Noting that use of social media by corporations is often lawless and ungoverned, often resembling “the wild west,” Krista said companies should develop social media policies. However, her research found that only 24% of respondents had done so while another 25% said they “planned to” in the next 12 months. Fully 40% said they had no such plans while the balance either didn’t know if they would or didn’t know what a social media policy would be.
The sobering reality that many consumers themselves have yet to embrace many of these emerging tools may also explain corporate reticence. In a similar study of consumer habits, IDC found that 64% of respondents said they used Facebook. The next most widely used social media tool, YouTube, was well down the adoption curve at only 14%, while Twitter was even lower.
Social media enthusiast Kelly Rusk tweeted me during Krista’s presentation to suggest that these numbers mean “there’s still opportunity for leadership in the space,” and I don’t disagree. The risk, however, is that marketers extolling the virtues of social media will find themselves too far out in front of both their corporate leadership and their markets.
By Linda Forrest
MediaBistro put together a tongue-in-cheek list of the five most prevalent types of Tweets from PR people. While it’s meant to be comical, it hits the nail on the head in most instances. I, for one, have rolled my eyes more than once at some of the more absurd Tweets that fall into these categories.
We inmedianauts will try our best to avoid committing these Twitter sins in future. That is, when we’re not too busy surreptitiously pushing our clients, hanging out at lavish parties, squabbling, complaining or sharing our excitement about the next big thing!!!
