The Rise and Fall of the Reusable Grocery Bag

I witnessed PR in the making today by sheer coincidence. It was so exciting, it gave me goosebumps and at that precise moment, the needle on my nerd monitor spiked.

There I was on search.twitter.com, up to my neck in research and popular opinion on reusuable grocery bags, when in the matter of minutes it changed. Breaking news shot out over the Twitter waves from CNW, declaring reusable grocery bags a health hazard.

As this message spread out over the Twitter waves, I found myself up to my neck in dissenting opinion about reusable grocery bags. The National Post was quick to get the message out, and then, a couple of hours later came the damage control and this article in the Toronto Sun stating “the plastics industry is fighting back against the growing popularity of reusable grocery bags with a study that warns of health risks.”

As a sigh of relief filtered out over the Twittersphere, public opinion turned to common sense — of course it makes sense, the obvious solution is to wash your reusable bags and don’t use them for anything else like transporting your sweaty gym clothes. I can’t imagine the kind of skanky-assed bags they must have conducted their tests on. You think something like “the presence of fecal matter” would have a certain odor.

Nevertheless, to see this whole situation play out in real time, as I sat there recording every detail of it, is something I don’t think happens too often. It was quite the thrill. Yes, I’m a nerd, but at least I don’t poop in my grocery bags.

Lock in and Follow my Tweets

Here’s another episode of SuperNews! making fun of Twitter and the many celebrities who are now part of the wave.

One of the celebrities featured is Ashton Kutcher and his PR stunt on Twitter between CNN. I wonder about short-lived PR campaigns such as these and whether abusing the system in this way will backfire somewhere down the line. Kutcher was very vocal during his race to 1 million followers, tweeting every ten minutes, but have we heard from him since? Not a peep. I don’t know about everyone else, but I feel so used.

Twitter Radio for the Sight Impaired

Twitter is making waves again — this time radio waves. Mark McKeague, a 20-year-old student from Queen’s University in Northern Ireland who invented a way for sight-impaired people to tune into Twitter.

Whilst on Christmas holidays, McKeague set to work and took apart a radio “and added an Arduino micro-controller to pick up movement on the tuning dial.” He then “added a connection to the radio’s speaker,” which allowed him “to connect the radio to the computer.”

Tweets can be listened to on Happy Twitter and Sad Twitter, depending on the nature of the message. 

McKeague doesn’t have any plans to market this invention yet, as it is still in its very early stages, but he’s “interested in developing the radio further.”

Any takers?

Source: BBC News

Celebrity Twitter Fight

If you’re on Twitter, you’ve probably heard the cautions about managing your public profile and nurturing your own personal branding. Whether you’re a celebrity or not, you have to watch what you say. I don’t know how many times I have erased tweets that I realized were inappropriate. I try to be respectful of the Twitter community and my followers, but there are times when you just want to say something silly or something that will get a rise out of people — and sometimes, sometimes, that’s ok.

For some people the temptation is very strong and utterly irresistible. Witness the following argument between Lily Allen and Perez Hilton — orchestrated PR stunt or happy accident?

@lilyroseallen Is casting the music video for her next single, which she’s shooting in LA. Tell her U think she should have Perez in it! Ha! …

perezhilton @lilyroseallen I can still read what you write, twat!

lyroseallen @perezhilton oh , I’m sorry , we’ve already cast the jealous and bitter lonely old queen role. Next time eh ?

perezhilton @lilyroseallen Jealous of who? David Beckham, maybe. And if I wanted to be a fucked up Brit, I’d rather be Amy Winehouse – whose got talent.

lilyroseallen @perezhilton god, you’re like so obsessed with me its embarassing.

perezhilton @lilyroseallen Congrats on your album doing well in America, though. It’s REALLY HARD to sell copies when u discount it to $3.99. Desperate!

lilyroseallen @perezhilton its also number one everywhere else in the world douchebag. Go away you little parasite.

perezhilton @lilyroseallen Aw, u can see I’ve lost weight! I am a littler Perez. But I’m still a big fat cunt – just like U! That’s why I lova ya. xoxo

perezhilton @lilyroseallen P.S. Thanks for advertising on my website. I’ll take your money (or the label’s) anytime!

lilyroseallen @perezhilton hes blocked, just had to get to a compute

When you’re in PR, reputation is always top of mind and negative publicity has its pros and cons. Such PR tactics are not strangers in the eternal quest for the tabloid cover, but the question is — how effective would this be as a PR tactic? If this is a scripted, curtains-up performance that received a lot of attention, would it help to increase Lily Allen’s sales? These are the kinds of questions that plague the mind of a PR practitioner (there’s got to be a better word).

On the other hand, if it was that irresistible pull that Twitter has on some people — the lure of temptation — that caused this spat to erupt and display itself in front of millions and millions of people, then how will it play out? You tell me — good or bad?

I think I censor myself sometimes too much, especially when some big names start following me. When I’m in doubt, I think of my tweet printed on a humungous billboard on the side of a very, very busy highway, and I think twice.

The Twouble with Twitter

This week, I found myself answering a lot of questions about Twitter from the most unlikely characters. If they had approached me a few months back, I would’ve given them a blank stare, shrugged my shoulders and looked at my shoes, thinking to myself, I should know that answer.

Before I committed to Twitter –  and let’s not be coy here, Twitter is a commitment — I couldn’t understand what all the hype was about and I looked sideways at people who planned their whole schedules around Twitter or who purchased gadgets that enabled them 24-hour connection to Twitter.

Now four months later and here we are…I have a job because of Twitter…I volunteer with progressive organizations like TorontoGreen.ca because of Twitter…and I encounter various other opportunities professional or personal, but either way beneficial, because of Twitter.

There’s a lot of buzz these days that Twitter is growing too big too fast for its own good and that changes are imminent. We all dread that day, and hope and pray that the powers-that-be will have the foresight to protect its loyal followers. Until then, I leave you with this tongue-in-cheek look at Twitter from the outside:

What’s All the Tweet About Twitter?

What is Twitter? It’s a PR tool, it’s a marketing tool, it’s an advertising tool, it’s a networking tool, it’s all things to all men (sorry ladies). It’s the new WOM gadget that’s getting lots of attention. It’s a new kind of instant messaging that gives you the opportunity to follow anyone. Yes, anyone. Why wouldn’t you want to use this networking tool to your advantage?

I recently worked in an office downtown near Queen and Spadina and every time a Tweet came in, my boss’s computer would ping and then twit like a bird, as if someone had just poked Tweety. I got used to it after a while, but at first, it felt like I was working in an aviary.

And I remember one day, we were in a meeting and there were messages coming in about a fire and we looked at each other puzzled, not knowing what they were talking about. Until I left and drove past the last remaining buildings being pulled down on Queen Street. So it made me wonder how effective is it really? Is the 140-character limitation stunting the level of communication? Are users adept enough to master that kind of brevity? And why do I need to know it’s bathtime for junior?

I decided to put my search engines to the test and see what they could tell me about Twitter and how it’s revolutionizing the world of PR.

Press releases now include Twitter links in the contact line so you can follow the progress of campaigns and stay up-to-date on the activities of PR firms. There’s an example on PR Press Release Newswire. 

Austin News out of Texas mentions a few advantages of Twitter: AMD Public Relations Manager Scott Carroll says, “‘It’s instant messaging on steroids, so instead of me just talking to you, it’s me talking to my entire community at once.’ AMD uses Twitter as a way to stay connected to its customers. ‘It’s very easy, sort of on the fly. Call it jazz marketing, if you will. We start twittering, and people are finding out about this,’ said Carroll.”

For Edelman PR’s Senior Vice-President, Steve Rubel, the easy, quick, simplicity of the Twitter tool got the better of him and he word-of-mouthed off about PC magazine. His tweet, I have a free sub but it goes in the trash sparked a rebuttle from PC Magazine’s Editor in Chief, Jim Louderback and whether or not he should boycott Edelman. Despite its size and its 140-character limitation, this Twitter tool has power and is a potential danger. It’s as if some PR agency specializing in crisis communications or reputation management put this tool on the market just to boost their client roster.

NYU Journalism Professor and columnist for the Guardian, UK, Jeff Jarvis says he sees Twitter as “an important evolutionary step in the rise of blogging.” He mentions Ana Marie Cox, “the former Wonkette blogger and queen of the snarky political post, has been using Twitter to cover the US primaries for Time.com.” She refers to Twitter as a “hack’s haiku.” I can see myself months from now, sitting at a news conference tweeting my boss every time one of our key messages are used.

Web strategist and Forrester Senior Analyst Jeremiah Owyang describes Twitter as ”like blogging, just on a miniature scale. Twitter is a next-generation instant messaging tool, where users can blast messages to their network, send private messages, or search.”

He lists these advantages for Twitter users:

Event Integration
Savvy brands and individuals are using Twitter to keep event attendees up to date on virtual and real life events. Use for events that use live streaming, live blogging, or attention to speeches are helpful. For example, during the Web 2.0 expo, I was live streaming the event via Ustream. I used Twitter to tell my network who and where I was, keeping them up to date. There are many other use cases that have not been documented such as using Twitter for project management, global travel, and even financial alerts.

Pebble Strategy
Recently, I announced my job change on Twitter, I dropped a series of “pebbles” (tweets) explaining my move, why I’m leaving. Dozens of users responded back to me, “congrats @jowyang” which promoted their network to see what I was talking about (they could visit my profile page to see what I said), building more interest. Finally, I linked to the blog post URL of my announcement in Twitter, and I received 91 comments on the first day. For more information, read Want Waves? Drop a pebble.

And offers this advice: 

Best Practices
The savvy Twitter user realizes that the effective communications aren’t just “pushing” content to readers, but they will also dialogue and converse with others by replying to them. I use this tool as a global chat room, responding to others, building relationships, and listening in. Like blogging, the rule of anti-marketing marketing is required for success, engage your community. Unlike traditional forms of advertising and marketing, Twitter is “opt-in” meaning that users will “follow” a twitter account, abuse will result in a user unsubscribing. For rules of engagement read Brian Oberkirch’s Advanced Twitter: Dont Tweet Like a n00b.

The geeks are going crazy with this Twitter and hundreds of tools and mashups are being generated. FranticIndustries, a blog written by Stan Schroeder, a pro journalist and web entrepreneur, lists dozens of links to Twitter tools and mashups, such as Twitter maps, FickrMixr, TwitterEarth, Twitterer, Twitteroo, Twitterlicious, Twitteriffic, Twitterbuzz, Twitterfeed and Twitterholic.

So, there you have it — lots of information about Twitter. If you want to investigate some more, check out the links. These guys really know what they’re talking about.

For more information on how to use Twitter, visit Webware and a Newbie’s guide to Twitter, How to Use Twitter on YouTube orHubspot’s How to Use Twitter for Marketing and PR.