The Twitterverse is all aflutter this week with some big headline-making stories further securing the micro-blogging hub as both a PR giant and social media marketing heavy hitter. Here are a few stories born on Twitter and creating national media buzz.
Late night hosts of all ages and genders have attempted to lampoon the on-going stupidity of oil company BP, but Twitter has certainly played host to the most pointed and effective spoof of the careless company thus far. A bogus Twitter account under the name of “BPGlobalPR” has been lobbing sarcastic remarks via Tweet since May 19. More than 100,000 folks now are following the phantom Tweeter, who refuses to be named in interviews. Whomever this guy is, he certainly has used Twitter to express his distastes for BP, even going so far as to sell T-shirts that say “BP Cares” printed in smudged oil-looking text (and going for $25 a pop). But behind all this satire is a point: According to the Associated Press, not only do proceeds from the shirts go directly to organizations cleaning up the gulf coast, the man behind the tweets himself has donated $10,000 to the Global Restoration Network by slipping the cash into the organization’s PayPal account. Way to go, mysterious Tweeting dude!
Next up, the bluebird played host to yet another war of the words between two professional athletes. It is undoubtedly a surprise that some NFL stars can even come up with a coherent 140 characters, yet this week saw a battle between New Orleans Saints safety Darren Sharper and Minnesota Vikings tight end Visanthe Shiancoe. Insults have been tweeted back and forth for more than a week, with both players laughing the whole feud off. This is yet another Tweet trend born in the boxing world to generate blurbs and blogs. And it’s working. The Saints and the Vikings face off on September 9th in New Orleans, so we’ve only seen the beginning of this cyber PR battle.
Finally, the power of social media marketing and PR can be no better illustrated than the strategic slew of Tweets unleashed by Israel this week. In order to clear up the flotilla disaster that occurred over the weekend, the small country with the great tourism campaign went into action. Israel, which also is tapping the powers of Facebook and YouTube, is hoping social media can get out their side of the news story in which a botched raid on a flotilla killed nine people. Some international affairs watchers doubt social media can save Israel’s behind on this one, but the country has launched an information war unlike anything we’ve ever seen in the new media stratosphere.
But enough about the headlines”¦ Let’s hear from you: What are some personal tweets that have proven successful in creating buzz and PR for your business? Are the words found on Twitter really newsworthy or have we sunk to new journalistic lows? Finally, who’s on your must follow list? Let ‘er rip in the comments section below!
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