Fact or Tweet?

by Heather Keroes 

At least one online publication has learned a lesson the hard way … just because it’s on Twitter, doesn’t mean it’s true.  Last week, actor George Clooney hosted a star-studded dinner/fundraiser with President Obama at his “quaint” Studio City home (an affluent residential neighborhood in Los Angeles).  The dinner was certainly an elaborate and news-worthy affair, with Jack Black, Salma Hayek, Barbara Streisand and many other celebrities on the attendance list.  Ben Hoffman, a comedian (who was not in attendance at the event), decided to “live tweet” as if he was there amongst the elite dinner crowd.  What many realized to be farce, however, was lost in translation as at least one publication, Silicon Valley Insider sister publication Business Insider, fell for the gag and reported Hoffman’s tweets as fact (in particular a racy joke was supposedly said by Obama about John Travolta’s recent lawsuit woes).  The writer even tweeted about it.

In an effort to make a correction (and save face), the publication has since changed the story’s headline to “Check Out These Hysterical ‘Live Tweets’ From Tonight’s Obama-Clooney Fundraiser.” The moral of this story (and a reminder for us all): Twitter is not a regulated news service … although the following would have made for one really hilarious dinner party.

Power to the People

We’re happy to welcome Dionne Aiken, former C&P’er and current freelancer extraordinaire, back to Taking Aim for the following guest post!

by Dionne Aiken

The pyramid of power is shifting as “we the people” are becoming more empowered and involved in causes for justice, equal rights and freedom.

With the Occupy Wall Street movement, the “99%” in NYC sparked what is now a widespread movement both nationally and internationally, drawing attention and media coverage to their voice and fight for “equal justice for all.”  Their website continues to be a source of information for passionate protesters and organizers who want to be heard by the “1%.”

Google, Wikipedia and YouTube (as well as a number of other websites) had their logos censored with a black bar to make a statement and spread awareness about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the detrimental effects it could have on our “freedom of speech” on the Web.  The viral campaign catapulted by their informational website & social media hooks led to more than 7 million petition signatures and consequently the house postponing the drafted bill.

“Make him famous” became a popular phrase when a video about war criminal Joseph Kony went viral. The entire campaign spilled over into Facebook and other social media sites and even took to the streets in their gurilla style “Cover the Night” event.

The Trayvon Martin case is another example of passionate individuals fighting for justice. Citizens took to the streets with “hoodie” movements and protests. This also spilled over onto Facebook and led to more than 2 million petition signatures to prosecute George Zimmerman.

These examples give “power to the people” a whole new meaning, as individuals are continuing to join the fight for equal rights and ‘justice for all’ while making their voice heard. This voice is amplified by Web and social media platforms which provide a sounding board for sharing and spreading information quickly and virally.

It is inevitable that this communications phenomenon will continue as the nature of our online arena and interactions therein continue to evolve and become more “governed by the people.”  Will your message be heard?

Brilliant Use of QR Codes

by Julie Primrose

QR codes have been around long enough that their novelty is starting to wear off.  Many people are even predicting that they won’t be around much longer.  While there are many examples of creative QR codes out there, most of them seem more like gimmicks than thoughtful uses backed with solid strategy.

However, this latest usage of QR codes by Emart, described as the Wal-Mart of Korea, is a great example of using QR codes to strategically target potential customers.

What makes this example different is the shadow-enabled QR code gives Emart customers a distinct benefit they wouldn’t have received if they hadn’t scanned the code.  This strategy targets customers when the company wants them to shop and it offers a coupon the customers wouldn’t have received if they weren’t at Emart during the target hour of 12 to 1 p.m.  Customers were engaged by the “Sunny Sale” campaign at the right time and place, which resulted in tangible sales results for the company.

Social Media for Social Good

by Kim Taylor

Did you feel that?  It’s the tide shifting.  There’s been so much negative talk about how bad social media is … everything from privacy concerns to productivity zappers and a gamut of reasons in between.  Fair enough.  There’s a degree of legitimacy to each concern.

But, perhaps we can silence the critics for a moment.  Facebook today announced a plan to encourage users to add their organ donation status to their timeline—hoping that in doing so others will be encouraged to become organ donors, too.

Imagine for a moment your own experience with organ donation.  Maybe you’ve never given it much thought.  You’re at the DMV (of all places!) and you’re asked to check the box … nobody’s around to encourage or discourage you … so maybe you do, but maybe you don’t.  End of story, right?

Now, imagine you’re scrolling through your Facebook page where friend after friend has updated their status to “Organ Donor.”  That’s bound to seep into your psyche.  The goal isn’t Facebook status, though; supporters hope to ultimately drive users to the national Organ Donor registry.

Of all places, I actually learned of a friend’s heart attack and subsequent transplant several months ago on Facebook.  I watched as friends of friends rallied around (virtually) posting their support with ‘likes’ and inspiring messages.   His survival was enough to solidify my organ donation status; will this move by Facebook change yours?

A YouTube Tip You Can Use

by Kim Taylor

Ever share a video and find yourself saying something like, “hey, this is a great video, but the important part is at the 2:23 mark.”  And then the person watching the video has to master the art of dragging that little status bar to exactly the right spot … awkward!

Save yourself that awkward moment with this handy tip.

Add #t= and the number of minutes/seconds (m s) to the end of the YouTube URL, create the new link and voila! Awkward crisis averted.

Let’s see this in action …

Original YouTube link:

http://youtu.be/x0EnhXn5boM

We love Eric Qualman’s stuff, but I really love this part at the 1:59 mark where he includes the Darth Vader Volkswagen commercial.

Edited YouTube link:

http://youtu.be/x0EnhXn5boM#t=1m59s

Cool, right?  Now, that’s a tip you can use!

SERIOUS Cash for QR codes

by Kerry Martin

This goes way beyond offering some dollar-off coupon for scanning a QR code in a flier for fro-yo … individuals with social media savvy could win a $40,000 cash prize offered by the federal government.

Called the CLIQR Quest (Cash for Locating and Identifying Quick Response codes), the contest was issued last week by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to understand social media’s role in mobilizing and communicating with the masses to solve time-critical problems.  There is a deadline of two weeks to find a number of codes dispersed across the country, but this isn’t like a scavenger hunt that publishes clues to lead you to each one.  You must depend on strangers (other twitter users, bloggers, etc.) to share the locations of other QR codes in their local areas.

But will this strategy of incentivizing people by a cash prize really encourage others to share information willingly?  To me, it seems like this perceived notion of ‘teamwork’ is akin to creating alliances on “Survivor.”

If the purpose of this Quest is to prepare for crisis situations that need to provide rapid mobilization for humanitarian efforts (like tsunamis, earthquakes and other disasters), what about basing the contest on those same principles of giving in times of need?  If I were to create this contest, I would offer that the prize money would go to the Red Cross or another charity that is currently helping people now—thus supporting the research’s mission of uniting people in a common goal through social media.  And to incentivize people to jump into action even faster, the prize money going to charity would start to diminish a little each day.

While this is a great way to assess social media’s power for getting information out to the public, I hope the contest’s motivation doesn’t hinder meaningful research.

Words Matter

by Kim Taylor

How much thought do you give to the words you select?

There is no commodity more valuable to a communicator than the words they choose to craft their message. Public relations practitioners are often accused of being “spin doctors,” but perhaps that “spin” is simply more thoughtful and deliberate selection of the same words to create a more powerful message.

To illustrate this point, picture the woman in this video as a seasoned PR pro.

Now, how much do you think words matter?

Mistakes Happen

by Dan Ward

There has already been plenty written about the erroneous early reports of Joe Paterno’s death, and how the media failed in reporting such major news without confirmation.  I’m not going to pile on.

Instead, I want to use it as an example of how to own up to a mistake, because at least a couple of people involved in this mess did so exceptionally well.

We’ve all made mistakes … a release that goes out with a typo, a poorly worded and poorly timed comment, misstated facts and figures.  It’s how we deal with those mistakes that set us apart. You can take the deny/deflect route, or you can take responsibility for your actions and ensure your organizations and clients that it won’t happen again.

In our Message Matrix® training sessions, we often use Lee Iacocca as an example, who upon learning that Chrysler managers had been illegally detaching odometers on “test” cars later sold as new, told the public “Did we screw up? You bet we did … I’m damn sorry it happened, and it will never happen again.” His direct and plain-spoken approach to apologizing for mistakes helped to avert a media crisis. Indeed, he was praised for his honesty.

Compare that to the comments from the managing editor of Onward State, the online Penn State student news site that first ran the erroneous reports of Paterno’s death. Devon Edwards’ letter of apology, which included his immediate resignation, includes several Iacocca-style comments. “Right now, we deserve all of the criticism headed our way.” “All I can do now is promise that in the future, we will exercise caution, restraint, and humility.” “I take full responsibility for the events that transpire.”

Compare also to the tweets from CBSSports.com journalist Adam Jacobi, who says he was fired by CBS for his role in publishing the Paterno death reports. “I’m sorry to everyone, most importantly the Paterno family, for how it ended.” “In the end, CBS had to let me go for the Paterno story going out the way it did, and I understand completely.”

Mistakes happen, and as Jacobi and Edwards have learned, they can have severe consequences. But my guess is that both will be judged not by the mistakes they made, but by the gracious manner in which they owned up to, and took responsibility for, those mistakes.

Messaging from the Grave?

by Kim Taylor

Much has been said about how to manage your social media presence if you were to unexpectedly meet your demise.  But, this Facebook app takes it to the next level.

“If I Die,” the “digital afterlife application” (fancy description, eh?), allows users to install the app on Facebook and either pre-record a video or write a text message to be shared with friends should that fateful day arrive.

Some might find the very thought of this morbid, but in today’s digital age, how different is it than making funeral arrangements to relieve family of the burden?

What do you think?  Would you do it?

Customer Disservice 101

by Dan Ward

If you have a few minutes, you owe it to yourself to read this GeekWire post about what is quite possibly the worst company/customer email exchange in history.

If you’re interested in learning every single thing you should never say to a customer, this one has it all. Curse at him? Check. Call him names? Check. Get his name wrong? Check. Belittle him? Check.

And when a member of the gaming media gets involved, make sure you get in a war of words with him as well. Don’t forget to drop names of the people you know, make a couple of empty threats and fail to do any research on the journalist you’re berating.

Oh, and by all means, don’t apologize until after your email chain has gone public.

Honestly, folks, this is one for the record books.