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.

Last week a mile marker in social media and political history was made. The United Nations Foundation paired with 92 Street Y and Mashable to host the first ever UN Week Digital Media Lounge.  As the event’s missions statement said“the conversation about the world’s biggest challenges no longer belongs to a small set of voices — it is a global conversation with an increasingly online pulse”.

So as UN representatives from around the world met last week in New York, a not so similar group of people convened at 92 Street Y to open up a similar conversation…with the online world. Though they’re not leaders or presidents, today’s top bloggers joined to facilitate discussions that simultaneously took place at the UN Summit last week. Their goal was to not only open discussions to public and invite their response, but also to broadcast them around the world via digital media.

Skype was the used to “bring in” UN representatives and experts for interviews straight from the UN Summit. Journalists and bloggers attended the Lounge and discussed global issues such as poverty, women’s health and HIV/AIDS. The Digital Media Lounge was broadcast to the world via Livestream so that anyone could tune into the discussion.

One of the goals of this forum was to bring together the people behind traditional media with the people of today’s new media in a single venue. This venue was able to generate and drive discussions that better represent the voices of advocates who are normally not heard.

This event was the first of its kind and shows the increasingly impressive impact social and digital media has on our society. More and more often we are seeing social media used in social advocacy efforts—most notably by the younger generation in the Middle East—as people try to make the world a better place for themselves and those around them.

Footage from UN Week Digital Media Lounge

Among the many advantages social media has to offer us in the public relations and marketing field, monitoring client brands is a big one that should not be overlooked by strategic communication professionals. Using social media to monitor a client’s brand can revolutionize the entire idea of branding. With better outreach avenues, real-time feedback, and better two-way communication, social media is quickly replacing traditional branding methods.

In a recent article Lauren Fernandez of Radian 6, the social media monitoring and engagement platform, cited what she thinks are the five key benefits of utilizing social media to monitor brands. We here at integratePR think she has some valid points and we want to share them with you.

1) Crisis Management

Fernandez points out the real-time response to issues that is possible with social media. She says that while lack of crisis communication strategies is not the issue, more often than not it is the lack of two-way communication in reacting to the issue. Think Dominos here—if they had reacted immediately, rather than 48 hours too late, it would not have turned into the disaster that it did (a national study conducted by HCD Research using its Media Curves Web site found 65% of respondents who would previously visit or order Domino’s Pizza were less likely to do so after viewing the offending video)

2) Influencer Identification

Social media can allow you to monitor the mention of a brand or client across the vast spectrum of social tools like Social Mention, Viral Heat, etc (mentioned last week on the iPR blog—hyperlink to http://iprblog.com/2010/08/the-tools-from-the-online-marketing-summit/). With this kind of monitoring available you can identify what kinds of forums your brand is being mentioned on, the context in which it’s mentioned and the volume of mentions. Having the knowledge of which platforms are influential to your specific auduience allows you to better target your communication strategies.

3) Building Relationships with Media and Customers Alike

Fernandez suggests using social media like a journalist—using it not only to stay on top of news and current events, but also to network with PR professionals and the community. While staying up on the trends of brands is important—it’s crutial network with the media and community you are engaging with. Media outreach can help you measure how well your brand is resonating with your target audience and community networks can provide you with better insight as to how to better target that audience.

4) Creative Feedback and Ad Targeting

Social media offers many advertising possibilities, and Fernandez sees this as a beneficial addition to your monthly metrics report. Monitoring statuses and posts on social media can allow you to implement ads that target individuals based on their interests. From there you can monitor if users are clicking on the ads, as well as communicating with or about the brand on social media.

5) Competitive Monitoring

Not only can you monitor the presence and feedback of your brand, but also that of your competitors—remember, everything online is public information! This knowledge will allow you to act quickly and develop new strategies if you discover that your target audience is communicating with your competing brand. Knowing the current efforts of your competitor can dictate your next move in your brand campaign and give it a better chance at success.

Throughout her article Fernandez emphasizes the versatility social media has to offer. It is clearly ushering in a new age of branding methods. In order to stay ahead in this ever-changing industry, it would be an advantageous tool to utilize. The ideas behind traditional branding are still the same, but the platforms are changing. This is something that should be taken into account when you think about future branding.

Many doctors advise their patients to stay away from online medical sites like WebMD, Wikipedia, and MedicalNewsToday. However, a new report reveals that Internet access is making a significant impact on people with chronic illnesses. Earlier this year the California Healthcare Foundation paired with the Pew Internet and American Life Project to study the affects of Internet and social media use on people fighting chronic diseases—a group that usually has limited access to the Internet.

The results shed a whole new light on the possibilities offered by social media. Once this normally Internet-restricted group entered the online world, they were utilizing social media far beyond expectation. They are not only researching diseases on Google and Wikipedia, they are blogging, tweeting and taking advantage of all social media has to offer. They are joining online health forums and discussions such as PatientsLikeMe and Daily Strength, in an effort to reach out to others with similar diseases.

Social media has made the Internet more than a search engine for information. For this group of people, it has become a network for open dialogue with others who are going through similar experiences. It is communication at it’s finest. People want more than a WebMD page to read, they want real-time conversations with people who understand them in ways that doctors and loved ones—who aren’t experiencing their symptoms— can’t.

Researchers say this is a healthy outlet for people with chronic diseases. It is improving their health by enhancing their mindset and outlook. They have outlets to vent to, to give and receive support and to share thoughts, suggestions, and treatment options with others. People from all over the world are being united by a common experience through social media and the result is a healthier social environment for those who need it most.

Many doctors have noticed the trend and as a result, have made themselves accessible via social media; many take the time to be in contact with their patients like never before. Not only that, healthcare practitioners are beginning to network with each other and share healthcare information through online communities like CONNECT and Medpedia—taking the field of medicine to a whole new level.

Social media has surprised us again with its versatile application. Since we continually focus on how useful it is in the world of strategic communications, it’s refreshing to realize that social media can have uses beyond that. It is just one more reminder of how important communication is in all aspects of the world around us.

A recent study suggests that women could be “addicted” to social media, particularly to their Facebook. Results show that one third of women aged 18-34 check their Facebook first thing in the morning before anything else. The study also says that 39% of women are self-proclaimed Facebook addicts. However 69% say they use it as a networking tool- whether socially or professionally.

Before we go down the path of berating women for their excessive use of social media however, let us take a look at what studies have to say about gentlemen and their social media use.

Facebook plays an integral role in the dating world of men. Statistics show that 65% of men think it’s fine to date people they have only met on Facebook, compared with 50% of women. On another note, 20% of men use Facebook as a way of hooking up with women, while only 6% of women use it to hook up with men.

Ladies do take the cake on boyfriend creeping: 47% track their boyfriend via his own account, while only 42% of men keep tabs on their girlfriend. However, a more interesting statistic suggests that men are more likely to end a relationship via Facebook than women. Can you say ouch?

Time used aside, it appears that men and women use social media for fairly different reasons. Women’s use has a broader range, while men’s use is more concentrated on, as the Huffington Post puts it, “the breaking up, hooking up” aspect of Facebook.

Regardless of what you use it for, 57% of women admit to communicating with people more online than face-to-face. Come on ladies!

While we here at iPR do love our social media, nothing compares to some good old fashion face-to-face time, especially with clients. So much can get lost in the tangles of the wide world web: tone, direction, and even just the confidence of knowing you’re on the same page. So take advantage of all social media has to offer, but when it’s really important…talk in person. Not only to make sure you’re communicating well, but also so that you never lose your skill at the most basic form of communication: personal.