social media | I am freelance

Amazon sees censorship decisions magnified through the social web magnifying glass

Posted on April 12, 2009 by Becky Green (was McMichael)

Now we all know the effect the Internet and indeed, the social web have on magnifying seemingly small issues or business decisions in record time….don’t we? Well Amazon apparently does not.

Twittering merrily about choccie eggs has been usurped today by the issue of #amazonfail, currently ranking pretty highly on Twitter and attracting interest across the blogosphere.

What is #amazonfail?

The letter here sums it up perfectly:

Somehow, the brain trust of your company has decided to protect the “entire” Amazon customer base by restricting access to content that someone (who?) decided was offensive. In your zeal to protect me from myself, of course, you managed to leave content that I find singularly repulsive online (really, exploring the human condition is bad, but Mein Kampf is just fine?).

This loss of ranking, listing, search functionality seems to be largely, but not wholly!, limited to fiction and non-fiction with themes relating to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues. Authors affected range from E.M. Forster to James Baldwin to John Barrowman, our beloved Captain Jack on Dr. Who and Torchwood and others, including a host of female authors who write erotic fiction.

Gee, I can buy a book on training fighting dogs (something so offensive my stomach hurts just looking at the cover image), but specific types of human relationships are suddenly taboo?

Whist watching this PR disaster in the making, what is interesting to me is how the story ends up being reported tomorrow and Tuesday as fellow PR, Eb Adeyeri points out:

Fascinating to see the twitter-verse rise up on an issue such as #amazonfail I wonder if their PR gets to it before it makes the nationals

As far as I am aware, Amazon does not have a “rep” on twitter, or not one that is very well known anyway either in house or agency-side. If they did, this could probably have been nipped in the bud earlier or at least properly explained. Instead, the twittering-classes have pretty much made up their own minds and the issue (and possible damage to reputation) will no doubt have been done by the time a more damaged piece appears in the press.

Ironic that one of the world’s largest online brands seems to be at the centre of a potentially large online PR disaster and its blog hasn’t been updated for over 24 hours.

What lesson can all brands learn from this about the online world? Even if you don’t contribute very often to the online conversation…at least listen and respond.

{update} great piece by Clay SHirky on the topic here. I still think that regardless of the issue, organisations are dealing with percepotions and the FAIL Amazon made was not speaking up early enough.

how do you do social?

Posted on March 23, 2009 by Becky Green (was McMichael)

Ever wondered how much overlap there is between your social networks or contact groups?

I always find it amazing that when I hit the “find people to follow or find your friends on X” button and add my email address such a relatively small number of users comes up. Yet with fairly healthy numbers on each of the services I use, why is there so little overlap between the services?

Having received lots of “follows” on Twitter recently from friends on other networks, I started to examine how and why I use each service.

Here’s what I discovered (apart from the fact I need to pay a babysitter and get out more often and have a MASSIVE sort out to get all my contacts in one place at some point, perhaps when my daughter leaves home):

I am currently active in several email or social network apps/services (such as FriendFeed, Delicious, Twitter, LinkedIn, Gmail, Flickr, Facebook, MySpace, Huddle, wordpress, Yammer, Photobucket, Google Reader, Technorati, Slideshare, MS outlook)
Email aside, I began using many of these services in 2004/2005 – the oldest are MS Outlook, Photobucket and GMAIL and the newest is FriendFeed.
When I compare the friends I have on each service, only approx. 15-20% are shared across social networks, the remainder is distinct to an individual network.
Only approx. 40% of my social network friends are represented in my email contacts.
The exception is FriendFeed that has no distinct friends – all are shared with other networks.
Facebook has the highest amount of family and close personal friends.
LinkedIn has the highest percentage of colleagues and ex-colleagues and the highest percentage of overlap with my email contact book.
Twitter has the highest percentage of people I have never met IRL but feeds into the largest number of other apps (blog, email, IM, delicious for example)
The order in which I tend to use to strike up meetings IRL are Facebook/Facebook messaging or Twitter/Twitter DM->Email ->IM-> RL -> Phone
I use Twitter DM almost as often as email/phone to set up / confirm RL meetings nowadays (work related, not personal).
Connecting with people you don’t know varies in both etiquette and ease. The easiest network to contact or connect with people on are Twitter, FriendFeed and blog networks. I find LinkedIn slightly less easy in terms of approaching people you don’t already know. For me the big no-no is Facebook in terms of approaching strangers you’d like to contact – I feel it is a personal network and I don’t accept invites there from people I don’t know and wouldn’t expect others to either.
With IM,email and mobile numbers, my rule of thumb is if you put them on your blog, it is fine to use them…providing it is relevant.
Very few of mky closest friends and family are on Twitter but the majority are on Facebook
In terms of the monetary value/benefits outside of the community and conversation loveliness of these services:-

I’ve found work via LinkedIn
I’ve saved recruitment costs by using LinkedIn and twitter
I’ve been approached for new business leads via Twitter
I’ve had press coverage because of the blog
As a remote worker, Huddle saves me money on conference /long distance calls as does IM
Email is by far the biggest time (and therefore money) drain

How do you do social?

twestival 2009 – a case study in the making

Posted on January 27, 2009 by Becky Green (was McMichael)

If anyone needs an example of what Twitter or other forms of social media can do for their organisation? Ask Charity: water on February 13th after one hell of a party has taken place. worldwide

On 12 February 2009 100+ cities around the world will be hosting Twestivals which bring together Twitter communities for an evening of fun and to raise money and awareness for charity: water .

The Twestival is organized 100% by volunteers in cities around the world and 100% of the money raised from these events will go directly to support charity: water projects.

In September 2008, a group of Twitterers based in London UK decided to organise an event where the local Twitter community could socialize offline; meet the faces behind the avatars, enjoy some entertainment, have a few drinks and tie this in with a food drive and fundraising effort for a local homeless charity.

The bulk of the event was organized in under two weeks, via Twitter and utilized the talents and financial support of the local Twittersphere to make this happen.

Around the world similar stories started appearing of local Twitter communities coming together and taking action for a great cause. Twestival was born out of the idea that if cities were able to collaborate on an international scale, but working from a local level, it could have a spectacular impact.

By rallying together globally, under short timescales, for a single aim on the same day, the Twestival hopes to bring awareness to this global crisis.

charity: water is a non profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations by funding sustainable clean water solutions in areas of greatest need.

Right now 1.1 billion people on the planet don’t have access to safe, clean drinking water. That’s one in six of us.

Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all sickness and disease, and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Many communities in developing nations often have a plentiful supply of clean drinking water just below the ground, but no way to get to it.

The organisers behind this project are volunteers and have shown us all what can happen when you think big and put in a lot of hard work. I’ll be attending the Manchester Twestival -hopefully see you there.