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.

As with any business, taxis must be held accountable for their bad service. Between the hassles of managing to get one on the phone, to the driver’s lack of a sense of direction, wouldn’t it be nice to know exactly where a cab was, allowing you to speak directly to the driver? Someone you trusted like a friend, who could come right to you, especially at those hard-to-find-peak-taxi-hours?

One Chicago man is doing just that; Rashid Temuri (better known as @ChicagoCabbie) has taken advantage of the power of social media by utilizing his twitter handle as a means of personally reaching out to his customers. His service is the epitome of a professional Twitter account – a transparent medium connecting a business to consumers. Travelers can track Temuri through Google Latitude and the Find My Friends app for iPhone so they can know exactly where he is to contact him for a ride.

Aside from ease of accessibility, Temuri brings a personal level of service to his passengers, apparently (we haven’t ever actually been in his taxi rides) he offers a friendly smile, free Wi-Fi (yes please!), and special discounts that he tweets every so often. Temuri often tweets them about their conversation (no, not like Taxi Cab confessions but as a great way of building loyalty with his customers!).  One look at his Twitter stream and one can see Temuri’s friendly nature -and why his passengers keep coming back.

Temuri differentiates himself by providing a solution for those customers who are frustrated with calling a company and not being connected with a driver. In addition, he has provided his distinction using free tools while larger car services put a steep price on the drivers who choose to post their whereabouts on social networks and connect with their clients online (no, we are not knocking Uber and want it in Houston more than the next person… we’re just stating the obvious..).

We salute you, Rashid, for utilizing free social media sources to bring excellent convenience and service to your customers. Now if only we could bring you to Houston…

We’re used to technology rolling out their new wares loud and proud but as of late, new changes have been happening rather quietly. Here’s a rundown of a few you might have missed:

Twitter Activity Streams

The list of stories about you, your followers and their posts dubbed the “activity stream” actually debuted in August, and has since been slowly integrated to users across the nation. The activity stream combines the mention and retweet streams into a constant flow of information. The feature will allow users to see a series of tweets on the homepage without having to expand into a side stream.

While the roll out has been slow, we have seen the recent addition and enjoy using it. Have any of you seen it and liked the change?

Facebook Newsfeed Sort

At the top of your Newfeed now, a new tab should read “Sort:.” You are now able to sift through your friends’ posts by choosing to either read highlighted stories or recent stories first. The difference between a highlighted story and a recent story is that highlighted stories will be specific to you. People that are deemed to have a significant relationship with you based on your history of interaction will rate them of higher importance and therefore be Highlighted Stories First. If you would just like to be constantly refreshed of news from the general populace of your cache of friends, choose the Recent Stories First option.

You can switch back and forth between the options, which one will you be using?

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!

Since we’re constantly harping on the fact that technology changes each week, let’s discuss two breakthrough tools that debuted this week and how they can help you and your clients.

Google GoMo “More Clicks, More customers, more conversions”

Each day, thousands of consumers make purchasing decisions based on companies’ websites.  With a huge percentage of those accessing websites via mobile devices it is more important than ever for companies to design a pages that are mobile-friendly.

“Consumers are 61% unlikely to return to a site that’s not mobile friendly, while consumer engagement increases 85% for websites designed for mobile devices,” claims Jesse Haines, of Google Mobile Ads Marketing. Coincidentally, thanks to Google, mobilizing your website has never been easier.

With the Launch of GoMo –short for Go Mobile – yesterday, business websites are  easily optimized for smartphone users. Users can begin with the GoMoMeter, a tool that shows how your current site looks on a smartphone. In addition, it provides a free report with personalized recommendations tailored to how your business can build a more mobile-friendly experience.