integratePR blog

PhoneDog Twitter Lawsuit

The year may be 2012 but there are un-discussed issues from the previous year that we need to set right.  Towards the end of 2011, Noah Kravitz, former employee of PhoneDog, was slammed with a $340,000 lawsuit for stealing their customer list.

While working for the mobile phone site, Kravitz operated under the twitter handle @Phonedog_Noah, gaining 17,000 followers for the brand. Upon his departure from the company in October 2010, PhoneDog allowed Noah to keep the account in exchange for occasional post

After changing the account to @NoahKravitz and tweeting for eight months, PhoneDog sued claiming “the Twitter list was a

customer list,” and they are “seeking damages of $2.50 a month per follower for eight months” which accounts for the massive total.

As new forms of media emerge, new rules and laws must come about to define terms of intellectual property. It will be interesting to see how this case turns out; it will be one of the first cases that set the standard and guidelines of ownership and “cost of followers” on the Internet. Stay tuned!

Find a Kidney on Facebook

Technological evolution occurs across all industries and in one particular healthcare case in the end of 2011, the medical and social media industries collided.

The first kidney transplant was performed over 60 years ago in 1950, and the procedure has since been perfected. However, the problem of needing a donor makes the process less than ideal. Recipients can wait up to three years for a kidney from the live or dead donor list.

Social media has helped to change the game, most recently for Damon Brown, a father of two in Seattle, Washington. Although Brown admits that as a typically stoic person he was reluctant to put his illness out on his social networks, he was shocked and gratified to find positive response. After creating a Facebook page that gathered the support of 1,400 friends, four passed the initial screening with one of them eventually providing the correct match.

It is always exciting to see an application of social media that helps to change lives. As Facebook grows in size and reach it will be able to continue connecting people in need to those who are willing to donate!

New Social Network

One of the most commonly used phrases in the PR industry is “What will be the ‘new social network’?” and there has been much speculation as to whether it will be G+… or another new player in the race.

Rumors have been circulating that Apple may have something new in the works for this year. In the same vein of the iPod revolutionizing the music industry and the iPhone revolutionizing the telephone, any platform Apple would come out with could absolutely have the potential to turn the social media platform giants on end. With the proliferation of iPods, iPads, and iPhones to the mainstream media, it will be interesting to see if the new platform will seize the attention of the Apple loving public, a problem that G+ has encountered, despite its growing 293 million users.

The past weekend we all officially “fell back” and if it threw off your schedule a little bit, here are some things you might have missed in the tech world since last Friday:

1. The CIA is watching you Tweet – According to a news article by the AP our government is monitoring what we have to say in social media spaces. After receiving an unexpected and unprecedented look inside the CIA, the AP has reported that the Central Intelligence Agency sees some 5 million tweets per day. While Twitter is a tool that one hopes citizens use for good; for example, as a means of gathering support or inviting people to a protest; with the proliferation of social media use in order to start riots across the globe, the CIA  reports that it watches Twitter with the best interests of national security.

2. Occupy Wall Street gets its own Social Media Aggregator – The Occupy movement has gained a large portion of its momentum online with protestors organizing via social media channels, especially Twitter. While the movement has soldered steadily along towards its third month of “Occupation” on November 17^th, Boulder Digital Works created an organizational system called Occupationalist to serve as a landing page for the movement’s many Tweets and updates. Subdivided so that each “Occupy” city maintains a separate stream, the site also offers pictures, videos and real time check-ins. No matter what your feelings on the protest, it is undeniable that they have done a great job leveraging social media to their advantage.

3. Movember – Since 1999 “Mo Bro’s” everywhere have championed the cause of Prostate as well as other cancers that affect men, by growing a mustache to last for the entire month of November. After registering with the official Movember Charity online, a “Mo Space” is created where members form teams and are able to track money raised for the cause. This year, for the first time, Movember bros are able to link with Facebook via Facebook Connect. The app allows moustache growing cancer crusaders to more easily showcase their teams and mustache pictures encouraging donations from their friends and spreading awareness. Take a look at the Movemeber website for more information or if you are interested in participating.

4. Mozilla Firefox 8 - Today! Although many dispute which Internet browser is the best – Safari, Explorer, Opera, Chrome, etc. – we can all agree that for professionals it is important to make sure your browser of choice is up to date. Today, the second most frequently used – Firefox – is available for upgrade, before the official release date, tomorrow, November 8^th. The download is available from their FTP server and will be manual, but if you can’t wait, download Firefox now for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

**5. G+ pages for Business - As we were posting this blog, G+ business pages debuted! There are still lots of questions to be answered about who and how these pages can be utilized, but we decided to create our own profile early so that we could best analyze the situation. Come have a look for yourself!

All denizens of the social media sphere know that the most utilized feature of the space is the ability to constantly share. The past week’s round up has some great examples of how different companies have shared and incited heated debates and discussions.

Good – Tweet Share

Each day a bevy of holidays you were completely unaware of reach your inbox – did you know it was National Skeptics Day? – and additionally each month is perpetually reblessed with the opportunity to champion a different cause. October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Organize your Medical Information Month, Class Reunion Month, and National Roller Skating Month, just to name a few. Of course none of these great causes sets precedence over another, as they were all decreed for a purpose. However, in the vein of Social Media sharing, a great example is Fair Trade Month, promoted by Ben and Jerry’s. By going to Fair Tweets and tweeting from their form, you donate unused characters from your tweets to spreading the message about Fair Trade! What a great way to share the message!

Bad – Chili’s Columbus Day

By all social media accounts Chili’s seems to work their branding right; they constantly engage their customers and receive plenty of responses from their audience. With over a few million Facebook fans, the page receives hundreds of comments per status, jumping into the thousands with their frequently posted coupons. This may have been why on October 10th they received so much attention when they posted, “Columbus Day! ‘Like’ if you’re glad the Americas were discovered!” The post elicited 2,829 likes, 228 comments, and 35 shares. Not staggering numbers by Chili’s standards, but the conversation sparked a strong undercurrent of customer dissatisfaction. While there were no comments regarding the food or service, the general belief was that whomever was handling their account lacked the foresight to think about how the statement should be worded to ensure it was politically correct. Though the postulation was followed by a conversation that lasted fairly steadily from post time at 11 a.m. to about 8 p.m. Chili’s did not comment, instead allowing the customers to debate the question of discovery amongst themselves.

Who’s to Blame – Twitter is dying and it’s your fault

A blogger at Coherent Social Media, Neicole Crepeau wrote a thought-stimulating article about the “death” of Twitter. In short, she surmised that the efficacy of social networks was being diluted by the influx of spam within the community. When an influencer in the community reads a significant article and tweets it, it’s subsequently retweeted by engagers in the same circle. For the next two minutes posts about the same article inundate a user’s feed for two minutes – a veritable lifetime in the span of a Twitter timeline. While the content was hotly debated, what was interesting about this article was the catch-22 it presented. While it discussed the issue of an article being over shared, as with all blogs, the main goal of its being written was that it should be shared. Google-ing the article nearly ten days later the query still yields three pages of direct links back to the article, which you can also read for yourself here.

Sharing online is a way of life. Whether you choose to share a positive message or a semi-rhetorical postulation that may be taken out of context, the opportunity for your message to reach thousands of people per post is why social media is not a trend, but a way of life for PR professionals. Although articles by large influencers will  inevitably be retweeted ad nauseam by those following influencers in the field, they will also trickle down to people who may not be in the field, perpetuating the spread of information and influence.

Good, Awesome and Ugly – Maintaining Tech Relationships

Good –October 4th “Let’s talk iPhone”

This Tuesday, Apple sent out press invitations with a simple “Let’s talk iPhone” tagline for the highly anticipated iPhone5 product release. The event is to be held at 10 a.m. Pacific at their Cupertino headquarters. Longtime Apple users who have been with the company since the iPhone’s inception have learned to be wary of upgrades with minimal changes. Some that skipped the last upgrade and held on to their iPhone 3GS have been anxiously awaiting the upgrade and are hoping for a simultaneous release of the new iOS5 operating system.

sent to media

The release, which has in past years grown in reputation for being a highly publicized media event, will be officiated by new CEO Tim Cook. In the past, the product has hit shelves one- two weeks after the press conference, meaning a potential date in mid October. Fueling this rumor is another report claiming that Apple has blacked out retail employee vacations from October 9-12 as well as 14 and 15. Apple brings its consumers back by consistently upgrading and updating their software, and ensuring that consumers have no reason to stray from their family of products.

Awesome – Bringing an apple to your teacher

While the public’s reaction to the news is happy or jealous, it is certainly unexpected as well as welcome to hear that Apple has donated a slew of first generation iPads to the Teach for America Corps, which places recent college graduates in teaching positions in the nation’s low-income public schools. Laurene Powell, wife of former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, sits on the TFA board of directors and began the program in the spring of 2010 with the release of the iPad2. Users who upgraded to newer versions of the device had the option of donating their old iPad at an Apple retail location. Exact numbers were not given but each of the 9.000 TFA teachers was offered an iPad in August. Those who signed up for the offer received their new devices in the past two weeks. The gesture makes a turn in Apple’s public perception as they are generally viewed as a non-feeling entity that storms about as large captains of industry tend to. As their spin towards the positive grows with the company there will be no reason for consumers to detract from the brand.

Ugly – Did Twitter pull Trending Topics?

Social Media usage came into play during the stay of last Wednesday’s case of Troy Davis. During the final hours of his looming execution, many of his supporters took to Twitter to voice their concerns with his death using the hashtags #TroyDavis and #toomuchdoubt. The controversy of his guilt notwithstanding, the interest from a social media standpoint came when it seemed that Twitter had pulled the topic from appearing in a list of trends.

Trending topics on twitter occur when hundreds of thousands or even millions of people mention the same topic in their tweets at roughly the same time. The topics are promoted on Twitter’s home page and clicking on the topic gives you a real time view of other tweets mentioning it, exposing a huge audience.1

During the stay and subsequent deliberation, heavy weight Twitter users such as Outkast rapper Big Boi – who has 331,635 followers and a Klout amplification score of 76 (meaning that his tweets are 76% likely to be acted on) – Russell Simmons and Kim Kardashian all posted messages on their accounts and several hundred users were upset that the hashtags did not appear as trending topics.

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo tweeted about the issue of trending topics in early August, stating that “trends are algorithmic, not chosen by us but we edit out any w/obscenities & I’d like to see clearly offensive out too.”

However, on the same day that the Troy Davis hashtags were unseen as trending topics in Atlanta, where the case was being heard, #sidechickbirthdaygifts was a trending topic. BigBoi tweeted that #TroyDavis was the number two topic in Atlanta but was subsequently removed, and Russell Simmons even appealed buying the topic from Twitter.

Did Twitter edit the race-sensitive content of Social Media on that September day? No one will be able to tell for certain. What it is important to glean from this situation is that Twitter has the ability to reach the masses; people would not be outraged about the censorship had it not been for its widespread coverage. Taking the next steps and acting upon the tweets that celebrities sent out that encouraged the public to call the district attorney may lead to positive change the next go around. It is always important to keep in mind that digital relationships only serve to foster a relationship that is physical. The ability to take a conversation offline, use it for a constructive purpose and maintain it via social sites is what we strive for each day with all of our client relationships.

http://sproutsocial.com/insights/2011/09/twitter-trending-topics/1

As is custom when Social Media giant Facebook updates its interface, several hundred users find the changes “appalling” and swear off of the site by posting their disdain. In the past week however, one change to the page layout that has sparked many online conversations is the edition of the Spotify playlist. The Swedish music retailer provides a free application that garnered attention earlier this year by offering their services on an invitation only basis.

Its users have now been upset in two fold ways. The first of which is the linking of the Spotify app to the new Facebook “mini-feed” feature. While sites promoting music and even individual artists are capitalizing on this by posting their own playlists, detailing to your friends each song you listen has “clogged” many users feeds. Today, Survivalguide4idiots.com, blogged a post containing directions on “How to stop Spotify from posting songs you listen to on Facebook” though it seems that word has not gotten around to the entire Internet just yet.

Users also became upset by the fact that users without a pre-existing Spotify account will now need a Facebook account to sign up for the streaming service. Spotify CEO Daniel Eck; a prominent speaker at last week’s highly orchestrated and media-oriented f8 conference resolutely stands behind the decision stating “As most of our users are already social and…connected to Facebook, it seemed logical to integrate…we’ve created a simple and seamless social experience.”

Twitter usage to voice opinions on both subjects was rampant with a sampling of the less colorful tweets listed below:

“Not interested #Spotify and #Facebook, in every song every person listens to. This is why headphones were invented”

“I wonder how much money @Spotify gets from Facebook to self-sabotage their relationship with their customers. Very sad.”

Users may feel positively or negatively about the corporate merger but a recent TheNextWeb article stated that Spotify has gained 1 million new users since the September 23rd integration, proving the genius of the collaboration.

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