Social Media This Week: November 28, 2008

November 28th, 2008 • Uncategorized
Tags: cyberbullying, mumbai, socialmediathisweek, wordpressdirect

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?

Social Media This Week: November 21, 2008

November 21st, 2008 • Uncategorized
Tags: cyberbullying, lively, motrin, motrinmoms, socialmediathisweek

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?