PJA: Bow & Arrow

This Week in Social Media: Hot Topics

November 30th, 2009
by Greg Straface

Each week, the PJA research department surveys current topics in social media. A couple of these stories become the main topic for our weekly Internet radio show, This Week in Social Media. Here are ten stories that we think are worth knowing about.

1)    From Twitter to Advertising Treasure

• A handful of companies are offering to pay Twitterers to gain access to their followers – so they can send them Tweets containing ads. The more followers you have, the more money you make.
• “If someone wants to offer me some money to talk about something that I feel strongly about on Twitter – and I don’t feel it’s diminishing in any way my messages – I don’t see why not,” says Dr. Drew Pinksy, who cut a deal with one of the companies.
• The down side is feeling like he’s exploiting his followers.
• “Everywhere else, where you generate content you get compensated. Same for a lot of these celebrities on Twitter. Their time is their money, yet they’re not getting compensated.”
• All they need to monetize Twitter posts is to match the publisher with an advertiser and “everybody wins.”
• Each publisher is limited to one tweeted advertisement per day.

2)    Tracking a “Missing” Man By Virtual Bread Crumbs

• Wired magazine’s Vanish contest promised writer Evan Ratliff $3,000 if he could go on the lam and not get caught for 30 days. It also offered a $5,000 reward to anyone able to find Evan.
• In this digital age, where so much information about us is available online, how difficult is it to shed all traces of your identity and start a new life?
• Ratliff wasn’t allowed to hide out all month – he had to go places and be public, both in the real world and online.
• Ratliff set up fake Facebook and Twitter accounts and described where he was and what he was doing.
• He became enthralled by the idea that thousands of people had found all this information on him but they weren’t going to catch him.
• Ratliff was eventually found in New Orleans.

3)    Is Twitter Finally Growing Up?

• Three years after its invention, Twitter still lags behind other social networks in how many users it has and in finding a viable business model. But recently, the company has unveiled a host of new features and revenue-building plans.
• The Holy Grail of Advertising: Twitter COO said the company is poised to launch an innovative, nontraditional advertising service.
• Commercial Accounts: Biz Stone recently said that Twitter will be introducing a special class of paid-for “commercial accounts” that will offer purchasers an additional layer of analytical data about the popularity of their accounts.
• Descriptive Lists: In October the company allowed users to group accounts they followed into topic-specific lists for more organized viewing
• “What’s Happening?”: Stone announced that the wording of Twitter’s status-update prompting question “What are you doing?” was being slightly altered to “What’s happening?”
• Geolocation: Twitter made good on its promise to provide software developers with the ability to implement “geotagging” in their third-party twitter posting clients.
• New Retweet Function: In November Twitter began testing a new feature that would formalize the “re-tweet” process.

4)    Depressed Woman Loses Health Benefits for Happy Pics on Facebook

• A Canadian woman claims she has lost her health benefits after her insurance company used her Facebook pictures as evidence that she was no longer depressed.
• She had been on sick leave for a year from her job after being diagnosed with severe depression, and was receiving sick pay from insurer Manulife
• Manulife confirmed that they use Facebook to investigate clients, but said that they would not deny or terminate a valid claim solely based on information published on websites such as Facebook.

5)    Facebook Friend Turns Into Big Brother

• University of Wisconsin lacrosse student Adam Bauer got an offer for a new Facebook “friend,” an attractive 19-year-old, which led to his invitation to come down to the local police station where an officer laid out photos from Facebook of Bauer holding a beer and then ticketed him for underage drinking.
• He was among at least 8 people who said they had been cited for underage drinking based on photos on social networking sites.
• “I feel like I’m in a science fiction movie, like they’re always watching. When does it end?” Bauer said.
• Local police officer said that law enforcement has to evolve with technolog.

6)    Writer Roger Avary Sent to Secure Jail After Tweets

• Pulp Fiction co-screenwriter Roger Avary has been sent back to a secure jail after reportedly giving updates on his sentence on Twitter.
• After being jailed for a year for killing a friend while drunk driving, Avary was on a furlough program which allowed him to work outside jail.
• It was revealed that he was not serving jail time after a blogger asked how he could send Internet updates from behind bars.
• The LA Times then found out he was on the work program and had not actually spent a night in a conventional jail.
• Avary’s tweets gave the impression of a grim life on the inside, sharing a cell with a “gangbanger” and using his inmate number 34.
• Sheriff said that security issues led to him being transferred to a county jail, and that his Twitter updates were not a key factor.

7)    This Holiday’s Shiny New Toy: Social Media

• Companies ranging from Wal-Mart to Panda Express to Target are experimenting with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr this holiday season.
• They are tweeting special coupons or limited-time deals, doling out fashion advice, and providing play-by-plays from product launch parties.
• It’s difficult to figure out if all of this social media activity is boosting sales, but companies said that social media is giving them a direct, unfiltered link to consumers.
• Target has used Twitter responses to tweak its merchandise selection.
• “If I run a TV ad or I do a billboard I don’t always know the direct effect. If I do Facebook and there’s a coupon or a direct link to buy it, I actually see the results.”

8)    Twitter Declared Most Popular English Word of 2009

• The Global Language Monitor, which tracks language trends, released its yearly list of most popular words and phrases within the English language.
• “Twitter” beat out words like H1N1, Obama, Stimulus, and Vampire.

9)    Social Networking on the Go

• Foursquare, a mobile social-networking service, lets users “check in” when they arrive at a destination, announcing to their friends their current location in case they want to meet up.
• The general goal is that people out and about can use their phone to find people or a cool, recommended destination.
• While social networking helps people connect online, adding the element of location means that they can also connect in the real world.
• Foursquare and other similar services help people when they’re looking for something to do with their friends or somewhere to go next.
• The next step for most of these services is to work with businesses to introduce advertising and offer deals to users who frequent a particular bar, restaurant, or retailer.

10)   Get Real Business Results from Social Media

• Naked Pizza, a restaurant in New Orleans, uses Twitter to send followers special offers, and converse with customers in a way that mixers humor with social and health consciousness – qualities that reflect Naked Pizza’s brand identity.
• So far, their social media efforts are paying off. At the moment, just one Naked Pizza exists, but by summer 2010, as many as 50 will open throughout North America.
• “If your business doesn’t have anything to tweet about, you’d better shift into a business that does have something to tweet about.”
• A recent survey shows that 75% of small business executives aren’t using social media for business.
• A proprietor of a wine and gift shop says that social media has allowed her to cut her ad spending by 75%.
• Anyone can join a social network, but it’s not going to change your business for the better unless you apply it in the correct way.
• An owner of a mobile crème brulee cart in San Francisco often posts his location, flavors, etc. on Twitter.

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